Temptation
by DiamondsLikeABoss90
Summary: Take a look in the mirror and ask yourself, what would you do to make it to the top? Who would you leave behind? What sacrifices would you make? And just who would be compelling enough to prevent you from taking everything you've ever wanted?
1. Just a Picture

**Chapter One**

The blaring sound of the music inside of the cramped studio apartment was enough to wake the dead. Sasha grinned, jumping out of the shower, it was unbeknownst that she would be joining the tile floor in a game of slip and slide.

"Falling on your ass achievement unlocked!" the fickle blonde laughed on the opposite side of the bathroom door. Sasha sighed cursing as the tingling pain on her backside reflected how much her good friend cared about her.

"Really Charlotte? Baby oil?" She reached for a towel wrapping herself just before pushing the door open. "How did you get in here anyway?"

"You left the door unlocked, again," Charlotte shrugged, "you better tone it down or Adam Rose is going to think your blooming into one of his little rosebuds."

Sasha rolled her eyes, pushing herself from the slippery floor was an obstacle. "It's not so bad, Char," she limped over to her friend who was scrolling through the never ending twitter feed. Sasha quickly dressed into maroon tank top and light-washed jeans. No need for any make-up today, the natural look was enough for the short shift she had today before the Takeover PPV.

"I'll still never understand why you even waste time at a little restaurant when you're a—

"It's far too personal right now," Sasha said looking into the mirror brushing out the dark strands. As much as she wanted to amplify the fact that she didn't come from a wrestling family as Charlotte did, not just any, but from the legendary Ric flair—so in terms of her status quo, her friend definitely had the upper hand. None taken, Charlotte worked just as hard as any of the other NXT rookies and Sasha was happy for her, but as any other aspiring superstar or diva the anxiety to succeed was overwhelming. Working in the indies for two years gave her the experience, and though having personal connections of her own; she still preferred to build her own success.

By the time she arrived to the street favorite Cimmaron Cafe, she caught a glimpse of two of three familiar men trotting into the place making eyes dilate into a whirl of admiration. The Full Sail ring of fan girls were giddy rushing to fix their morning hair in hopes to get the attention of Roman or Seth. Sasha chuckled inside. Seth finally brought his friend—she remembered him mentioning that he was going to introduce her to Roman. She knew who he was for the most part. Her hints on twitter couldn't have been more obvious. It's not like he knew it was her anyway, but after today, whatever Seths goal was he was going to find out.

She took the back entrance waving to a few familiar colleagues, Emma and Bayley were having a cup of coffee to start off the day. The usually alright music was shaded by the chatter and laughing of those in arriving in the restaurant. Seth, and Roman proceeded to grab a table on the upper level balcony. Seth flashed a smile Sasha's way and she returned one grabbing her notepad and heading to their spot.

The two of them finished conversing about something and the first one to order was the Samoan Thor himself. "I think I'll have the Belgian waffle combo," he said immediately raising a brow when he saw her. Good thing she was able to keep her composure because being in his vicinity indeed made her stomach spin. "And what will you have sir," she winked at her good friend, Seth.

"You already know what I want, sweetheart," Seth continued to list his usual of triple sunnyside up as Sasha scribbled down the order. It came to her inquiry that no Dean was around. Usually the three of them never left each others side, but she guessed Dean had other things to tend to. Emma kept glancing their way, it was kind of eerie.

"Fifteen minutes," she said treading back to the kitchen. She jumped over the swinging door to find another fresh rookie and 'hidden' beneath the coffee bar. "Angelo, what the hell are you doing?!" Sasha said grimacing. The brown-skinned guy flipped his snapback around making his glasses slid down his face a bit. "That's real creeper status, you know," she shook her head. Angelo laughed popping up from the coffee bar.

"Let me guess Char got you before I could?" he asked cursing beneath his breathe, Sasha could do nothing, but laugh at the feeble attempted prank day. The morning one was a bit of a surprise, but she wasn't having any other fuckery for today. On a real note, Angelo never just dropped in just to prank her and carry on. There was always an underlying reason.

"So, you gonna tell me what's up or do we have to gamble first?" Sasha asked brewing up the coffee maker. Angelo stood up giving her those run away eyes. He wasn't fooling anyone.

"What are you doing Sunday night after Payback?" He asked dusting off his Jordans, Sasha gave her immediate answer by rolling her eyes and glaring.

"Watching Sailor moon and sleeping," she perked her ears as Seth and Roman's order were called out, "it'll be a busy night."

"Alright, coo," he said helping her gather the shiny silverware, "but get this you've been on a roll with your boss flare why not expand your image into the world of socialites," he said in an almost philosophical tone.

"So are you saying you want me to prance around downtown Chicago with no panties on?" Sasha shook her head, "no thanks Britney handled that one for me."

"Though, I'm sayin' I wouldn't mind that at all," he said flashing a perverted grin, "but seriously we're just about having fun after the show, the rookies and maybe even some of the superstars will be there."

Sasha let out a long sigh. Why did she even gave him time of day to convince her. "Look, I'll go for a little bit and I'll have a good time, Bank On it."

Angelo let out an obvious breath of excitement. "Yes, you tha baddest!" he grabbed his galaxy S4 proceeding to text probably the world about the Chicago raging.

Sasha took the fresh orders of Seth and Roman's out to serve. She took a seat next to Seth playfully nudging him and grinning at Roman. It was interesting seeing Roman outside of the ring. He still looked like he was ready to fight though, but his physique is what made that apparent. Sasha swore there was someone afar near a tree gawking their way. It was definitely a female with long dark hair. Creeper status well deserved for whoever the fan girl was. Sasha shrugged returning her attention to the two hounds. That's what makes the WWE exciting, never knowing who you were going to meet, your inner demons, and how the fans would react; Temptation was it's favorite game and the devil himself knew the rounds of roulette would end in his favor.

Charlotte had done everything in the book to make it clear that she was indeed the new NXT Women's Champion. Everyday since she won at NXT takeover had been about celebrating her new reign. Sasha was indeed ecstatic for her friend, but really she becoming a real parrot. Typically nice and well structured all of a sudden everyone was her worse enemy. Except for Sasha. She wasn't the one to turn her back on a friend, even through the most bull shit drama, but she was becoming a little annoyed with her bragging rights. Sure, Sasha had felt a bit down and even a little jealous because her friend had the gold, but that was natural—every one wanted a shot, and patience was the only way to get it out.

* * *

Sasha turned her car into the crossfit gym parking lot barley surviving the traffic of Chicago. This place was a mad house and she couldn't have made anywhere without her GPS aka Summer Rae. Both divas had their hair pulled back into high ponytails, no make-up ready for a workout. They made their way through the entrance, Summer went straight downstairs to the weights. Sasha decided to go hit the punching bag for a few rounds upstairs. She peered through the shut door to see Seth, Randy, and to her surprise the COO Triple H—they were floating some serious conversation. Seth's infuriated grimace made the room seem confined as a jail cell.

"Adapt or perish," the last words the COO said just before he exited the room followed up with Seth throwing a basketball right for Randy's head. Bad aim, because instead it went straight for her, luckily her quick reflexes saved the day.

She stepped through the door too see sand all over floor. Rollins with his fist clenched together, veins ascending from beneath his skin, and sweat dripping from his chin. His shaded irises turned towards her shooting a piercing cold emotion she couldn't touch on. Sasha's stomach flipped over.

"Goodbye, Sasha," Rollins demanded in a burning tone, he turned to the mirror staring at himself in some sort of trance. Sasha crossed her arms walking towards him.

"Up for a sparring session? Like old times?" She asked hoping he was just recovering from an intense interval.

"If we spar Sasha, I may make you bleed, and believe that right now I don't give a damn."

"Are you alright?" She asked in a low saddened tone. The answer was obvious, but she didn't just want to leave him meddling in his anger, that could change a person.

"You decided to care now that you've finally notice?" His sardonic line was like a punch in the face. Had something been wrong and Sasha didn't catch on to? It made her sink to the floor.

"I don't understand.." she sat on the bench near him. Seth scoffed flipping his two-toned hair back.

"Of course you don't understand," he said glaring at her, "the best excuse I've heard all day."

It dawned on Sasha. At NXT Takeover after Charlotte won her match she decided to start her ring of cockiness and spat at Seth. Calling him underrated. Sasha and Roman were backstage chatting before the ordeal and when it happened Seth dipped out before they could catch up with him. Sasha shook her head in hopes to clear things over. Why would one little word boil him this far anyway? "Look, Seth if you're angry at what Charlotte—"

"It's not just about what she said," he snapped boiling over even more, "she just triggered what everyone had been thinking this whole time, and no thanks to you or Roman for not saying a thing to refute her either."

"No, Seth it wasn't like that—," Sasha tried to explain the aftermath, but Seth cut her off."

"Save it," he said snatching his gym bag and storming for the exit. Sasha jumped from the bench running towards behind him catching his hand just in time.

"Just whatever it is Seth," Sasha pleaded, "don't do anything you'll regret, I'm here for you if you need to talk." Sasha gave his hand a squeeze. Pausing Seth looked to the side, making slight eye contact with her; he gave her hand a squeeze as well and left the gym. He was still in there wasn't he?

**After Payback 2014**

Sasha and various NXT rookies all watched the hopeful ending to the PPV. Seeing Roman get beaten down like that made her cringe. She had only really been getting to know him for a few days now, but really enjoyed the limited time they spent together. "Turn up!" Charlotte said waving over a bartender. Angelo was taking pictures and collecting numbers, or so he thought.

Sasha was joined by one Tyler Breeze who showed up taking selfies. "You know Sasha I don't know why you don't join us more often—you definitely make the crowd look good." Breeze said handing her a shot glass. Sasha gave a questioning smile. She glanced around putting the shot back on to the table. She had enough for tonight and wanted to get back to her room. Oddly enough everyone was looking her way. A crowd of young students appeared blocking the way out completely. "Hey you're Snoop Dogg's cousin right?" One brunette asked with hopeful eyes. Sasha nodded and sighed. Not only was she irritated because of the thirsty ass groupies asking her about her family, but the crowd was making her a little antsy. She picked the shot glass back up throwing back sour apple vodka, the burning sensation did no justice mainly because this was shot number...

It was time to go.

"Angelo!" Sasha called out to her friend who had disappeared into the crowd. Sash pushed through the crowd bumping into Emma in the process. Emma laughed shaking her head. "Drunk, Sasha I didn't know if it was even possible, you need to get home."

"I'm not that drunk," Sasha said rolling her eyes.

"How about a dance?" Emma said doing her quirky trademark dance; Sasha quipped pushing Emma to the side.

"Sorry Emma, but fuck you right now," she snapped losing control of composure. Fuck where was Angelo? "God dammit!" She shoved her way through the crowd heated that Angelo had ran off somewhere. After a few minutes of shuffling, she found him grinning a group of females. She grabbed him by the arm, pulling him to the side. "I'm ready to go, I'm a little to out of it," she said taking a deep breath.

Sasha stepped out of the car relieved that she was finally out of that place. She sighed sending a text to Emma apologizing about being rude. Completely uncalled for. She entered her hotel, kicked her heels off, pulled the uncomfortable dress off and planked on to the king bed. She turned on her back staring at her phone, hovering over Roman Reigns name. He had to be in immense pain after the whole ordeal with Evolution tonight. Sasha sighed, biting her lower lip. Maybe a teasing picture and friendly text would do some good. In essence it was not like her to just throw herself out there like that, but she did say she would have fun tonight. She pulled her laced red bra straps down her shoulders exposing just enough skin. She snapped the photograph and wrote the message beneath it.

Brutal to watch you go through that tonight :(

Hope this makes the healing process go just

a little bit better. ;) See you soon!

-Sasha #BankOnIt #BO$$

Hopefully he would believe in that.

* * *

**I hope you enjoyed! Let me know what you think if you have second!**


	2. Patterns

**Chapter Two**

**Enjoy!**

Waking up with drool seeping into the pillow, vodka breath, and a blaring phone wasn't ideal for four-am. That was on her, especially knowing that it was going to kick her ass right back into bed. Luckily she didn't have to get to her flight until later in the morning, but that didn't explain why someone was blowing up her phone at such a deadly hour. She raised a brow as the caller ID flashed the unexpected name. Seth. "Hello," Sasha barley got the word out sounding as if she smoked a pack of Marlboro Lights.

"Long night?" The low tone meddled through the phone.

Sasha cleared her throat; the other night was a cluster of things, from what she could remember anyway. Along any other terms she hoped that at least whatever slum Seth was in the other day had passed. "Something like that," she yawned. "You feeling better?

"I feel revived, and I wanted to apologize about yesterday."

"Disregard the fact that you're calling me this early to apologize," she let out another yawn, "and it's okay." A sense of relief measured over her, briefly, something still didn't feel right. Maybe it was his morning voice.

"I had been channeling all this dark emotion, primarily because I just needed a change," Seth's words sounded more like a confession.

"Change is good," Sasha agreed, "sometimes it's the only way to move forward."

"And with you understanding that, I wanted you to be the first to know."

Sasha's ears twitched a little. A chill went down her spine. "Okay," her foggy mind may have been playing games at the moment. The desire of one wanting to change was relative and compelling, but for some reason he put off something more sinister.

* * *

The chatter coming from Charlotte passed through Sasha's ears like a stream and the Chicago airport was just as worse as the traffic. As the two waited for security; anything Charlotte said before or after the word party didn't register. Sasha was focused on her phone scrolling through the endless text messages that seemed way too far from reality. Had she really been texting Roman all night? At least the messages were suitable for all ages-

Just kidding. She took that back when she got to the picture message part of the night and face-palmed. Okay, so maybe she had a little more to drink than she thought? No. she was just in a really _really_ sexy mood last night.

"Who are you texting?" Charlotte said realizing that Sasha didn't hear a damn word she said, "you've been in your phone for hours now."

Sasha took a sip of her grande ice coffee. "Oh, just Roman," she quickly locked her screen. Charlotte raised a brow.

"Well damn, that's why you left early last night," she stuck out her tongue, "I'm proud of you, I thought maybe you were going all soft on me by siding with the lesser of a man, Seth."

Sasha rolled her eyes at her friends degrading attitude. "He's not, and just like you Char he's my friend—stop being so judgemental," she snapped.

"Calm down, I was just stating the truth," she snapped back, "of all three member's of the Shield, he's just the shadow."

The calm factor substituted in the attitude that Sasha wanted to give her bestie. Because really the airport wasn't to flattering for a catfight.

That moment when you wanted to slap the bitch out of your best friend's mouth. Whatever fumes that NXT title was giving Charlotte had negative lingering from it. Between the two of them and Summer, it was really starting to become some spotlight competition. If one had all the light in their favor, the others just dwindled in the background making their contributions on occasion. Or at least it seemed that way to observers.

Shadow. Sasha shook her head clearing the words from her memory. Charlotte went off to grab more coffee while Sasha returned to the text messages soothing her boredom. Her eyes moved forward almost jumping two feet back when a small diva with long dark hair stepped in front of her. "Shit, you scared me," she said feeling her heart rate rise.

"I don't think we've met, yet," the diva flashed a curious smiled and held her hand out, "I'm A.J."

Sasha nodded smiling back at her. With A.J. on the main roster it was rare to see her prancing around like this. "Of course, A.J.," Sasha said reaching for her hand and shaking it. "What are you doing here?"

A.J. for a few moments stared at Sasha, as if she was studying her. Weird.

"A.J.?" Sasha said with an uncanny worry.

A.J. jumped out of whatever trance she was in. "Yeah, I'm sorry I'm just here to..." she stopped, gazing at the floor and back to Sasha, "warn you."

Sasha was baffled, not aware of what warning AJ would give her. "You lost me.."

"It's about Roman," she blurted, "take away what you want with this..but he's conflicted."

"Oh," Sasha said with a blank expression, so he's not really looking for anything serious. Fine. How did AJ know this?

"It's just something that I've notice," A.J. said twiddling her fingers, "be careful," the small diva flipped her hoodie over her head and disappeared into the crowd.

Sasha shrugged. Conflicted was too vague for her to register at the moment. Maybe AJ had saw something that gave her the wrong idea about Roman, but until Sasha found out for herself she would continue the harmless flirting. Grinning at the picture message she sent last night, she took it to her liking to send a message before boarding the plane.

_So are you the Samoan Thor or the Samoan Superman?_

_I know you've got the super strength, but there's no doubt_

_in my mind that you bring the hammer down every time ;)_

_-BO$$_

The plane landed smoothly in Tampa and after dropping by her apartment for a half-hour it was back to a productive day before the live RAW. Sasha dropped her phone on the nightstand, showered and grabbed a few things to snack on before heading out the door again.

It was time for a little fun at the performance center.

Right as she entered the jeering Bayley was at the door waiting to greet everyone. Kudos all around for the positive mood. Bayley gave Sasha hug despite her ticked off attitude the other night. Various rookies including Adrian Neville, Sami Zayne, and Alexa Bliss all gathered around.

All the focus in the classroom and for some reason out of the blue, the only thing Sasha could think about was Seth. The conversation in the morning seemed as if it ended with an understanding of a phase, but something about Seth saying he needed a change. Something more corrupt than that.

She didn't remember a damn word Howard Fine said, but at least he had given them a syllabus for practice.

Sasha pondered over her thoughts. Maybe she was over-analyzing, but that feeling pulling at her skin was inevitable. She reached into her bag scrambling for her phone. Nada. She cursed. Not likely there were any thieves around here, but one couldn't be so sure. She caught up with Alexa who was heading out to the parking area. "Lexi, can I please use your phone?" she sighed wanting to kick her own teeth out, "I think mine got stolen."

"Sure," Alexa handed her phone to Sasha, "I'm heading to the cafe, you joining us for the Raw party?" Sasha dialed in the first number that floated inside her head; she gave Alexa a nod, throwing her purse in the passengers side of the simple coupe. Unsure if her feeling was accurate, but better to be safe. A few rings went on and Seth picked up the phone.

"He—" Seth didn't get a chance to finish before Sasha went into full game of twenty questions.

"What are you doing?" She asked anxiously, "this morning you said you needed a change and you wanted me to be the first to know..."

"I did," he agreed as if he was expecting the call, "and that's why I'm going forth with my decision tonight," he said boldly.

Sasha sighed shaking her head. To no extent did she think that he would ever turn his back on those who cared for him the most. "No...not like this," she pleaded, "think about what you're doing."

"What's best for me, Sasha," he words reached through the phone, "you know this feeling, better than anyone else, when others try to bring you down—what do you do?" His question brought back memories of when Sasha turned her back on her former friend Paige. She hadn't been the best person since then, but the feeling of freedom in exchange of losing a friend...

"I understand," she said whirling through emotions, the call disconnected.

"You okay?" the blonde next to her raised a brow at her dismay.

"No," she shook her head, "something terrible is about to happen tonight."

"Elaborate?" Alexa said stopping at a light. Sasha closed her eyes for a moment. She couldn't let this happen. With her phone gone, she wouldn't be able to reach Roman or Dean. "I just need to get in contact with Roman," she cursed taking the phone and sending a text to Charlotte. Maybe since she had missed class today she could swing by the apartment and grab the phone.

They found a space in the nearly full lot outside the Cimmaron. Sasha took a seat at the bar next to Tyler; who was taking a picture of himself sipping a macchiato. Wow. Sasha rolled her eyes. The front door swung open and Charlotte was standing tall. She ran over to Sasha holding her phone out as if she was suddenly out of breathe. "Got your message," she coughed a little, "floored it right away." Sasha let out a sigh of relief before quickly unlocking the phone; a text message appeared.

_Either way you look at it or slice it Sasha_

_you know I've got that superhero swag that _

_gets you every time. Bank on it and believe that._

_-RomanWillReign_

"Ohh," Charlotte said looking her shoulder, "sneaky," Sasha grinned a little before noticing her curious friend. Returning to reality, she hit the call button hoping that Roman wasn't busy.

Voicemail.

"Fuck!" She scrolled to the next name in line praying that bad luck was just a phase. Dean's phone gave the same result.

Sasha cursed again. She didn't want to resort to the whole he said she said deal, but one person that could send the message for her and sound completely accurate. She dialed in the number hoping the other line would disregard a machine.

"Hello?" The voice on the line responded after one ring.

"Hey, John," Sasha lowered her voice, "look I know this may sound insane, but I spoke with Seth earlier...he's been out of sync lately and tonight he's going to betray Roman and Dean"

John shuffled on the phone as if he was checking to see if there were any listeners. "You're sure?"

"Yes..I think it's been at his mind for awhile now...if you can find a way to stop him or warn the other two, please?"

"I got you Boston," John assured. Sasha crossed her fingers, the show began.

"Just one martini?" Charlotte sighed as Sasha nodded while looking at the screen. Still nothing between the Shield transpired and she almost thought that maybe Seth had changed his mind. Thought it over.

"For now yes, way too much to do this week and—" Sasha stopped when Evolution appeared on the screen. They stood outside the ring facing the Shield sledgehammer in hand; Seth had gone to get backup of his own, the steel chair. Hunter went on about how the Shield had conquered them, but in no means was it over and it didn't matter that Batista had quit because...

"And if plan A doesn't work out, then there's always a plan B," Hunter said with smarmy grin in villainous fashion as did Randy."

Roman and Dean took a step forward; ready for a fight, Seth stood back with the chair in his hands and an ice cold irises glaring at his 'brothers'

Goddamn you Seth!

Sasha closed her eyes hearing the metal bounce off of Romans back and avoided looking at the screen from then. "On second thought, I think I'll have another martini," she said looking at Charlotte who was in shock, along with the other rookies. Eyes wide and silence filled the room at the betrayal on the TV.

Charlotte nudged Angelo who was tweeting away about the incident. He grabbed more martini's from the bar. Sasha didn't hesitate to indulged the salty bombed drink.

"Whoa!" Breeze said gazing at his phone with a hazy expression on his face, "Sasha I didn't know you were into the whole scandal thing."

"What?" Sasha was baffled, she went over to Tyler stumbling almost as the affects of alcohol squeezed into her veins. Tyler gave her his phone.

Her jaw dropped.

The racy photo she had sent Roman had been all over the web. Every wrestling news site and even TMZ had the photograph in vivid color.

_Snoop Lion's(Dogg's) cousin show's off goodies._

No. No. No.

Sasha didn't know how to respond. She looked her phone over—she had only sent it to Roman. Why would he send it to anyone else? Maybe that's what AJ's warning was for?

"You look way hot," Charlotte shrugged, "hey it gets you some attention," her friend brushed off the tension.

"Char, this isn't something to feel great about.."

"Man, if Hunter gets to this, Sasha," Angelo said shaking his head, "you gotta watch who you send this stuff too."

"You mean when," Sasha wanted paper bag over her head asap, "this night..." the fiery built in her blood, had she felt any angrier she would probably combust. She grabbed her phone calling Roman again. The show was over, the damage was done, but she needed to now what he did with her picture.

Voicemail.

"Roman, if you do not pick up your fucking phone!" she yelled so loud people in the restaurant all silenced. Before she could another word in the small Alexa Bliss snatched her phone and the fifth martini from her grip.

"Believe me, Sasha, the last thing you want to do is leave a drunken message—" Sasha didn't let Bliss finish by delivering a piercing slap to the petite rookie. Bayley quickly came to Alexa's aide.

"Don't you ever take my shit away from me again!" Sasha snapped, foggy and enraged she didn't know what was happening to her internally she couldn't control the fire building beneath her skin. Charlotte laughed. "This is the Sasha I've been waiting for," she embraced her bestie.

Sasha gave a sadistic smile as everyone kept their eyes her way. Her voice was heard, the attention was in her favor. "Turn the fuck up!" she demanded.

The night went into the morning and Sasha was shitfaced; along with Charlotte and Angelo the three climbed into the cab. The driver, who barley spoke English got them back to their apartments quickly. Sasha nearly crawled all way to her door, tripping over herself she barley made it inside enough to kick the door closed. Crawling over to the kitchen she grabbed a bottle of water and ibuprofen. For the few hours of sleep she was going to get, she knew the hangover was going to be a nasty one. She set the water and pills on her nightstand.

Two things had happened last night while one was embarrassing, the other was heartbreaking. For many, but for those who were close to Seth...

That friend you went to when you felt like the world was about to kick your ass into the deep blue sea.

She went into her walk-in closet staring at the wardrobe labeled BOSS; looking past her Louis's and Jimmy Choos.

The only thing that mattered was the oversized hoodie that Seth had given her in 2012. She took the damn thing out wanting to toss it right into the trash.

Instead she laid the hoodie on the bed and cuddled next to it.

* * *

**Hey y'all! Thank you all for the feedback! Let me know what you think and keep them coming! Don't forget to check out the connecting stories by RonTheRon "Pride" and Cody'sxFavoritexGirl "Insanity" **

.


	3. Repercussions

**Chapter 3**

The cure for the hangover didn't budge; the ringing sound throbbing through her ears like a generic alarm clock on repeat.

Again.

So then she probably pissed a lot people off the night before, but really who would remember anyway. After realizing that Seth was going to leave his brothers behind; she was too little too late in getting the message pushed forward. No turning back or last minute thoughts, it was done. Seth was gone.

What did this mean for Roman and Dean?

Roman needed to burn in Hades for releasing Sasha's picture on the web. Assuming it was him—she didn't send the photo to anyone else, but what would he have to gain from it anyway? Did he just find it amusing to leak something like that? From what she did know about him—it didn't seem right. None of it really added up—regardless the next time she spoke to him she was going to be sure that he got the shaded side of her. Who knew that in span of a few weeks something so simple and harmless would become one big tsunami. It was almost worse than reality TV.

Just stride along, she continued her thoughts. There was no time for a relationship anyway—she was fine.

Time is what lead to her being friends with Seth in the first place, or at least that's what it seemed like. After he joined the Shield and got busy—Sasha didn't want to become a distraction. They agreed that they would value a friendship more and had been fine like that since.

However, the sudden nostalgia she had for him lately didn't make the predicament any clearer; maybe she just really missed hanging out with him.

Yeah.

She was on the road nonetheless. The next show was in Palatka and she was far from ready. Nerves were the last thing she thought about when it came to wrestling, but with the blaring picture of her floated around world wide web; she was surely going to need a medium sized paper bag. With media being huge in WWE now days, she wouldn't be surprised if the COO was at the door waiting for her.

To her surprise it was one Summer Rae by the building. As if things weren't twisted already, the random appearances from Summer were questioning. Charlotte and Sasha had been becoming a bit distant from her, not only because she's occupied mostly on the main roster, but the trouble she's stirred up overall. It would work itself out somehow though, she thought. "Sasha I needed to talk to you-" she said as Sasha approached the entrance.

"Not now, Summer," Sasha said entering the building, "tell me after the show."

She entered just in time to find Angelo and Charlotte chatting by the vending machine. No glares or raised eyebrows yet. The two friends knew better. "You made it in one piece," Charlotte said raising a brow. Sasha nodded.

"Just barely," she responded rumbling through her headache. After shaking off her long night with coffee, she prepared for her match against Alexa Bliss in the locker room. An apology was in order—from what she remembered she didn't take to well with small diva and on impulse slapped her. The last thing she wanted was to stir up unnecessary drama. And now with that picture floating around, there was about to be more storming her way.

The crowd on a good note was hyped throwing awesome chants at the NXT divas as Sasha and Lexi finished the match strong; Sasha hit the Bankrupt pinning Bliss clean. Before the two left they hugged it out effortlessly. "Sorry about last night I was so rude," Alexa smiled accepting her apology and they both slipped through the black curtain; walking by Summer and Charlotte who were seemingly arguing as if that wasn't enough the person in question himself was standing in her way.

Roman stood there as if she was suppose to give him some welcoming gesture; instead her face fell into a bold glower. Fiery from the photo getting out to the media, she didn't know exactly if she was more upset with him or herself. Was he even to blame? "You've got some nerve showing up here," she said refraining from making her hand contact his pretty precious face.

"You're right, I do. But I came here to see you, to-" Roman started some heartfelt explanation. Sasha's mixed emotions definitely wasn't helping.

"To laugh at me? Or to tell me in my face that this was all just a game to you? Or maybe both?" She fired. The tension rising caught the attention of her two friends Summer and Charlotte in which they halted their argument completely focused on them. Many more wandering eyes were glancing their way as well.

"Hey, enough with that. I came to tell you that, in spite of what you're going through right now, I wanted you to know that I didn't leak that photo out to the Internet. I would never do something like that. My pride wouldn't even let me," he placed his Superman fist over his heart. Sasha's glower softened into hope. So it really wasn't him then? She fused through her irrational actions the night before. The one's she could remember.

"I don't know whether to believe you or not," Sasha confessed, "but I tried calling you and you didn't answer," she finished.

"That's because I didn't have my phone and neither did Dean. We got your messages and hell, we even got a letter from John explaining the whole situation," Roman said his eyes followed hers.

"If and when Hunter sees this, I'm going to be so dead. If he even finds out about...whatever this is between us, he's going to kill you," Sasha quietly warned, as some stagehands passed by. Roman shook his head, placing his gloved hand on her shoulder.

"And you're not worth it?" he said with a meaningful charm in his voice. No matter how hard Sasha tried to resist, as soon as as she heard that charm and made eye contact with the genuine Samoan, she went from being uncertain to swooned.

Sasha started for an apology for about the horrid voice-mail she sent him "Roman I…" he placed his left arm around her waist, and hooked her in.

"You what?" he said, raising an eyebrow. "Don't worry, everything's gonna be alright. We'll find out who did this," he said, massaging the back of her neck.

To her surprise two familiar faces jolted from around the corner; Jimmy and Jey Uso; looking as if they just gave a rookie some special 'welcome coffee' Sasha freed herself from Roman's grasp.

"Our cousin, that's our dog! Last name Reigns, first name Roman, taking advantage of the Sasha effect!" Jon yelled out, raising the roof. Sasha grimaced looking at the two brother's then back to Roman.

"He went from crazy chick to the 'Boss of NXT' in a snap!" Jey yelled out excitedly.

Sasha quickly took a step back. "What do you mean crazy chick to the Boss?!" Sasha said, with a scowl look on her face.

Negative.

Again, not that it was her plan to just take a leap of faith and jump into a relationship, but she did enjoy the pace and consideration.

Okay, a little fast on the pace part, but aside from that it brought back the memory of seeing AJ in the airport the other day. It all fell together when Jey gave play by play of what had been going on in the wonderful world of AJ in wonderland and the anger and frustration made its way back into her psyche.

"So AJ was right. You are conflicted," Sasha said shaking her head and shrugging. Why should she be even the slightest surprised? It was Roman Reigns after all. Sasha departed from Roman without another word. Charlotte and Summer trailed behind her she pushed through the locker room doors with force. The two friends stood there waiting for her give the gossip, but instead they got the remnants of a silent treatment. More like Sasha meddling in her thoughts.

"So?" Summer said getting Sasha's attention, Sasha rolled her eyes.

"There's nothing to talk about, he didn't send the picture." Sasha said firmly to the blonde. "It's handled." Summer gave her a surprised look.

"Your reputation is ruined now because of photo and you're just carrying on?" Summer crossed her arms.

"Did you send the photo?" Charlotte interjected giving Summer a dirty look, the argument from earlier clearly wasn't resolved. Sasha shook her head at the dispute not wanting to waste any time on the matter.

Plus she was worn-out and paying for last night.

Too bad.

She was about to receive the proper punishment she loathed. As she stepped out of the locker as the bold face of the COO of the company shot a glare at her and it was inevitable to avoid it. The extra frown line added to his forehead told the rest of the story. She stepped into the COO's office prepared to face the wrath, but was taken aback. Of course it wasn't going to be a simple one on one meeting.

"Mercedes,"

She winced at the sound of Hunter's voice as he took a seat in front of her. She dropped her duffel to the floor.

"As you may know, there's been a stir up backstage and all over social media—because of a leaked photo you had taken." Sasha nodded feeling the room close in.

"We don't condone this type of behavior, I know you understand that."

"I do."

"Then explain to me how this happened?"

Sasha anything, but comfortable took a moment to respond. "I sent it to a friend," she explained—I'm not sure how it went beyond that, but I promise it will never happen again."

"Good," he motioned towards the door as it slowly opened—a secretary brought in a shiny Macbook and Hunter paused glancing at his phone. "I'm going to make this your warning," Hunter said sternly. Sasha raised a brow relieved, but surprised about the decision. She gave a nod of assurance. Maybe luck was on her side after all.

Something was still out of place though and she needed to know who sent that picture.

**Hey y'all! Thank you all for the feedback! Let me know what you think and keep them coming! Don't forget to check out the connecting stories by RonTheRon "Pride" and Cody'sxFavoritexGirl "Insanity" **


	4. Taste of Boston

**Chapter 4**

**Thanks again for the all the feedback! Enjoy**

A sudden anxiety bolted over her moving straight to her palms and waking her up in the process. The mass sweat on her forehead was enough to hydrate a severe drought, but damn she wondered if she had a fever.

Never getting sick was catching up with her.

Sasha rolled out of bed and struggled to fridge grabbing a bottle of water. Maybe it was the horrid humidity in Florida, but man it was hotter than usual and only two-am. She cranked up the AC unit and slid outside the patio door. The soft purrs raised from the furry company she had. "Have I been ignoring you Nala?" she said as Nala hopped next to her on the lounge chair. Sasha scrolled through her phone still thinking about the stupid photo online.

Really what was bothering her was the fact that Hunter let her off so easily.

Sure she was thankful that he didn't blast her into a literally ring of punishment, but then again others may have done worse.

Nope a week later it still didn't add up.

As for the Roman situation she was really becoming indecisive. Did it really matter that he had something with AJ Lee before her? It was really none of her business, but isn't the girl married to Phil? This whole situation was baffling. One thing Sasha did realize about AJ is when it came to men. The Geek Goddess always got what she wanted, but considering that she may have found her soul mate and all...

She was crazy. You don't question crazy—you just let them play on.

Maybe Roman was worth the shot after all; Sasha had been single for awhile now and did enjoy the harmless flirting from time to time. Really getting into an ugly battle over a guy wasn't something she aimed for. Roman's charm, however did intrigue her—to a point where she really wanted to take the leap.

Then there were those lingering feelings for Seth. Primarily that's what was shitty about being friends with someone you use to be with. It seemed like it was okay at first, but then suddenly those feelings always found a way to win. As for him feeling the same? Good luck on her ever finding out because his mind had wandered. Whatever his motives were right now did not include her. She was fine with that.

She could wait.

Sasha sighed turning on her play-list and looking back towards the kitchen. Getting back to sleep was something a little vino could cure.

The live event this Friday afternoon and a good one at that. For once she got a break from tagging with Charlotte and her ego with the replacement of new upcoming rookie, Carmella. Angelo found himself in a deadly match against Bull Dempsey who quickly annihilated Angelo. That was probably the third time this month.

The dwindling alliance between her, Charlotte and Summer had only been getting worse. Charlotte's attitude was becoming unbearable and Summer's defense mechanism channeled all the way from Total Divas. Which all cost her the match she had with Alexa Bliss the other night; Sasha was just about done. Being the friend she is—she decided to not let it boil over too much, yet.

Definitely knew the consequences in that demeanor.

Sasha and Carmella went up against the lucky charm team of Becky Lynch and Alexa Bliss. It was nice to have a little more freedom on days like this because Sasha was able to utilize more of her indie moves, in which she could only use on occasion. Both sides delivered well. Alexa was tiny, but she could work the hell out of that ring, excelling in her high-flying technique—hitting the 450 splash and various moves that divas weren't renowned for. She even had Sasha dizzy at some point. Sasha gave some of her own as well; hitting her favorite suicide dive on their opponents. They brawled back into the ring keeping the audience engaged. For a fresh rookie, Carmella was on fire—hitting an STO outside the ring on Becky; Sasha took the advantage to deliver a sudden backstabber to Alexa and transitioned into the cross-face for the win.

The evening was near and Sasha had some minor packing to do for Boston on this weekend. Not only was it the PPV Money In The Bank-named after her, she chuckled. Her family was excited to see her considering her time conflict during the week. She shook her head. Her Mother was probably going to talk her ears off and make her eat everything she can't in the E.

Carmella hit the road with her back to Winter Park turning on memory music from the 90's as Sasha relaxed in the passengers seat sending out a few tweets to fans; and lingering over a few old text messages before deleting them all. A few new messages appeared on her screen three from her Mother asking a different variation of the same question about tomorrow. _Are you fighting tomorrow?_ And then there was one from Seth?

Okay.

She opened up the message curiously and almost deleted it by accident.

_You're avoiding me? _Sasha found it a little amusing, but he was most likely being serious. It's not like she told him everyday that she missed him. Or at all.

_Ignoring you, actually...traitor. _She hit the send button. The traitor part was very true—but the ignoring thing was just to feed her own denial.

_I didn't betray you... _She could hear his tone and all.

_Still kinda lame it had go that way..._

_Self success is always okay, isn't that your motto BOSS?_

_Great point. _She hoped the sarcasm screamed at him. _Really though, what is it Seth?_

_Is it so bad that I wanted to say hello? You're still my friend you know. _ Sasha half smiled. At least he was thinking about her...she guessed. Maybe it would be better to actually talk to him. Not via text message though.

A half-hour drive later and the two were back in town Sasha handed Nala off to Carmella for the weekend and gathered her carry-on for the red-eye flight. Surely she was excited about the event and the time she got to spend with her family, but the amount of salt that came with it was unsettling. Whether or not the COO let things by, the photo was still out there; the attention was still there, but she would have to deal with it either way.

And her own little secret, of course.

The flight was a little bumpy, but landed smoothly in the Athen's of America city. Sasha got a few Z's on the flight and at seven in the morning she wasn't sure if she was up for seeing her mom this early. So for a little preparation, she stopped by the Starbucks stand. The barista seemed like he had a heck of a night; his apron stained with coffee. Sasha smiled hoping to lighten his day a little. "I'll have grande caramel machiatto, please." The barista nodded starting up the espresso machine, he reached under the counter revealing a pair of black glasses. "You work for the WWE company right?" he asked immediately blushing when Sasha gave a nod.

"Yes I do," she replied handing him her debit card.

"I think these belong to one of your co-workers-long dark hair, yae tall..skips a lot," he said handing her the macchiato. Sasha raised a brow. The Geek Goddess was back so soon? Hm. She took the glasses and slid them into her Louis Vuitton.

"I'll get them to her, thanks." Sasha turned to walk away, but stopped herself as all curiosity risen. "By any chance...did you see her with anyone?" Sasha flashed smile leaning into the counter.

The man had a hardline across his face, again. "I did actually—she was talking to that John Cena guy—I didn't catch it all, but the last thing she said was something about finding Roman," he shrugged. Sasha grimaced a little.

"I see," she said glowering her eyes. She took a seat at one of the tables and pulled out her laptop. Checking her business email; the majority of the roster was booked at the Boston Garden Inn. Perfect. Considering she use to work there before she got her dream job, it would be an easy approach at finding the Geek Goddess's room and returning her glasses with pleasure.

Leaving a nice tip for the coffee guy, Sasha rushed out of the airport to her rental.

The Inn was within an easy five-mile radius. Sasha hopped out the car and pushed through the entrance of the Inn. The receptionist with olive skin and sandy hair immediately recognized her. "Mercedes? You're out here today too?"

"Yeah, Dana," she said smiling to her former colleague, "Could you do me a favor?" Dana gave a nod slightly uncomfortable. Either she knew that Sasha was about to bend the rules or she had seen the photo.

"Do you have A.J. Brooks on your list?" Sasha said moving her eyes over the surroundings. Dana paused scanning the computer screen she nodded.

"Yes, Ms. Brooks is on the fourth floor in 24C." Before Dana spoke any more Sasha was up the stairs to her destination. She wanted to make this quick. 24C was at the end of the hall. Sasha didn't know exactly how A.J. was going to react, but it didn't matter. She didn't come here for a slumber party.

Knocking on the door with enough force the Boss of NXT was surprised when A.J. swung the door open with a look of dismay on her face.

"What the hell, Sasha?" A.J. squinted her eyes, well she certainly did need the glasses.

Sasha reached into her bag and pulled out the glasses. "Can't see to clear?" She handed them over her. A.J. grabbed them reluctantly and slid them onto her face.

"Thanks..."

"I know about your little thing with Roman," Sasha blurted, "I wanted to let you know that I don't want any trouble from it."

A.J. chuckled giving an arrogant smile. "It's not like he has much of choice anyway," A.J. flipped her hair back rolling her eyes.

"I don't follow..." Sasha said tilting her head to the side.

"There is only me and none of you," A.J. crossed her arms, "if you really think that some fake little water under the bridge speech is gonna end this—."

"I'm not trying to stir up things AJ," Sasha retorted, "I don't want war—I don't understand why you keep itching at it like this."

"Obviously you interest in Roman has peaked," AJ spat, "the picture tells all, and then some," AJ said going into rant mode. "From a guys perspective I don't blame him. You send a suggestive enough photo indicating you're a whole lot more than just the Boss of NXT."

"A peak in interest is just that," Sasha squeezed her fist. A.J. was starting to be a little more cunty and less cute. She respected her, but right now she wanted to rip her throat out. "Look AJ—"

"Don't get me started on the media having your photo all over the world now," she interrupted getting in Sasha's face, "I mean now you have a plethora of guys running your way—hope you saved up enough to dry-clean your pretty little outfit after they're done with you."

Zero.

Ten.

Sasha didn't feel AJ's face connected to her hand because she had swung so fast that there was a time lapse. Anger boiled over. She was usually calm and good a wavering out of things from being violent. At least when not drunk, but AJ was going way too far.

So much for returning the glasses as they flew off AJ's face splitting in half when hitting the floor. AJ laughed hysterically. Looking into Sasha's eyes she knew how to dig deep.

"Roman is single," Sasha said with a strong glare, "that picture was leaked, you are again being nasty and jealous bitch." Sasha gazed down to the shiny ring on A.J.'s finger, "shouldn't you be worried about that husband of yours?"

AJ smirked putting her hands behind her back and raising her brow. "So does Roman know that you're still in love with Seth Rollins?"

"Stop it, AJ." Sasha ignored the hit, "you know nothing about that."

"I don't?" She said rubbing her hands together, "you honestly think that I didn't do my digging on you?"

"What's in the past stays there," Sasha said shaking her head, "nothing from then is really that relevant right now."

"Really?" AJ laughed dramatically, "because you two were so in love, I mean how can a bond so strong be wretched into the wind, especially since you two..."

AJ stopped her bickering. Giggling at her round of truth. How she found out anything was beyond Sasha. Why she wanted to torment her she didn't understand. All for Roman huh?

A.J. burst into song. "I'm a little teapot Short and stout. Here is my handle, here is my spout. When I get all steamed up hear me shout. Tip me over and Pour me out."

She really was crazy.

Back on the road again. Sasha was speeding. Where was the traffic patrol anyway? It was all because AJ had sent her into overdrive. She knew everything. Too much. Her knowing that her feelings for Seth were indeed that strong wasn't what initially bothered her. It was the fact that AJ knew everything else that Sasha thought was buried. Eventually things did catch up with you. Then there was the fact that AJ threw every thing back at her with the photo. Getting under her skin—all because she wanted Roman Reigns.

Sasha wasn't going to let jealousy stop her from hanging out with him. AJ could do as she please, but all it was going to accomplish was Roman seeing that she truly is a mental case that couldn't be hindered.

God she needed a fucking drink, but she didn't exactly want to walk into her mother's house in that form anyway.

Sasha pulled into the driveway at the house she grew up in. It was always weird returning to a place as such because of where she was now.

It was kind of errie to see that her mother's gardening obsession hadn't dissipated. At all.

Although the fancy sport's car outside the garage definitely didn't belong to her parents.

Her nerves bottled up as she pushed the door open, her mother walked right out of the kitchen to greet her.

"Mercedes, what took you so long?" They embraced. Her mom led her to the kitchen, "you have company."

Seth Rollins stood in the kitchen casually. Sasha had to blink a few times. "What..?"

Her mom smiled. "You have the sweetest co-worker—"

Sasha pulled Seth out the kitchen right outside the sliding screen door into the back yard.

"What are you doing here?"

"Spending some quality time with you," he said raising a brow, "is that weird?"

"No, it's creepy." Sasha said looking through the door as mother went into chef mode, "what games are you playing?"

"None, Sasha," Seth said sternly grabbing both of her hands, "I came here to see you and to gain your trust again."

"You could have called or text, you know." Sasha said glancing at her phone. A text from Roman was in her message box. Something about a movie. "And I never said I didn't trust you. I just called you a traitor."

"I didn't betray you."

"So I guess that makes everything you did okay then, right?" Sasha snapped realizing that Seth was still holding her.

"Look, if this really bothers you that much then I can go," he said looking down. Sasha sighed through her lingering anger.

She did want to talk to him today after all.

"No," she finally relaxed.

"I knew you wanted me to stay," Seth grinned, pushing his hair behind his ears as Sasha groaned. "Look whatever, my mom is gonna make me a home cooked meal that I haven't had in ages. You're welcome to stay I guess," Sasha said, loosening his grip from around her.

"And then maybe we can catch a movie or something? I heard the new Transformers movie is really good," the Architect casually suggested. "I'm just trying to do what I said; spend some time and earn your trust again," he said.

Sasha, slightly nervous, looked around the outside patio. After all, didn't she just get a text from Roman asking about going to a movie? She inwardly groaned; sometimes it was tough to be the Boss, but she was the head honcho for a reason. She had to make these tough decisions.

"Fine," she said, "I'll go with you around 7pm this evening? And I'll meet you at the theater. Don't bother coming to pick me up," she said in a hurry. Seth chuckled at her slight panic.

"I'd think you're just trying to get rid of me," he said, sliding his phone out of his pocket. It was a text from Randy, telling him to come get him. Apparently Dean tracked Randy down, and had beat the Boston snot out of the St. Louis native and now he was lurking nearby for Seth.

"I think I'll pass on the brunch Sasha. Something just came up and I have to go address it right now. I'll still meet you at the theater," he said, bowing out and hopping over the fence. Apparently that Crossfit really did pay off.

Sasha scratched her head in complete confusion; what the hell just happened? Why was he being so discreet with her? Was it her breath? The Boss pondered her thoughts, and out of the corner of her eye could have sworn she saw Dean Ambrose fall out a tree and run to pursue Seth.

Whatever it may be tonight was going to be an interesting one. It would all start off with a movie with Roman Reigns.

_**Hey y'all! Thank you all for the feedback! Let me know what you think and keep them coming! Don't forget to check out the connecting stories of the Deadly Sins by RonTheRon "Pride" and Cody'sxFavoritexGirl "Insanity" and Mellyxbrooks "Envy"**_


	5. Pipebomb

**Chapter 5**

Standing out side the Boston Matinee, Sasha was in full incognito mode. Sort of. After she glanced in the compact mirror she slipped on her large Versace shades. Smiling to herself as her unorthodox outfit of a red and black Sailor Moon T with high cut jean shorts—she definitely iced it with the stilettos as well.

Gianni himself would be proud of her creativity.

She was not at the theatre to see a movie; she had just gotten out of the Transformers showing with Roman. It was nice to relax and catch something in the normal world for once—especially with the continuous busy schedules. Sasha enjoyed the time she spent with the Samoan Thor. Even uploading a more appropriate photo on Instagram with him and she even gave him a kiss.

That one was impulsive, but no regrets there. Not yet anyway. She pondered a bit until the person she was waiting for pulled up in the flashy crimson sports car. Seth didn't have on any stupid corporate suit or something out of his element. He was wearing a black graphic T and plain dark jeans. More of his style

Seth smiled as the window rolled down and the doors unlocked. "Hop on in," he adjusted the seat for her. She stared at him; conflicted on whether she wanted to fall through with whatever this date was. Most likely because there was a little guilt for just going on a date with Roman.

"You okay?" he said turning the radio low then moving his eyes to hers. He caught on to Sasha's reluctance as she slightly nodded.

"Where are we going?" Sasha took a step towards the car, her shoulders tensed up.

Seth shrugged. "I don't know to see the world, or whatever you want."

"Only if it's safe," she said finally getting into the car.

"Do you trust me?" he raised a brow. "At least enough for now."

Sasha hesitated as she strapped the seat-belt on. "Yes..."

Seth quipped and turned the music volume back up. Not a thing had changed. He always needed raging music while driving. As they drove beyond the sunset, Sasha on gazed at her hometown as the city lit up full of Boston nightlife. At least she got to spend some time with Seth. They parked outside the pier and Sasha felt her heart pound out of her chest. So many unanswered questions that she was finally going to address. She pulled off her shades as they walked up the dock taking a seat at the edge as the Boston waters glistened from the lights. Seth place his arm around her waist pulling her closer to him. She leaned into him relaxing feeling her shoulders release the lingering tension.

* * *

MITB was amazing a few disappointments, but an overall great experience while being home for a little. She was disappointed because Roman didn't prevail to capture the gold he yearned for, unlike Seth who got the sealed opportunity briefcase. She meant to keep up with Roman to see how he was doing, but he was gone before anyone could catch a word. Maybe after Raw.

Pouting at her last night out of Florida the last three days had been amazing.

And wasn't Instagram such a great reminder of that, she thought smiling as the picture of her and Seth appeared in the news feed. In converse with the one she uploaded of her and Roman—the fans were certainly going to take it in which ever direction they wanted.

However, she only had eyes for one of them.

She wanted to kick herself for leading Roman on. But come on, he was flinging with AJ Lee. The bitch.

Sad she used to like her, but people are never as they seem. Shades of truth were always exposed eventually—unfortunately all fifty of them.

Sasha scrolled through the tumblr fan mail answering various(weird) questions and giving shout outs. Some times the Stan's were a bit much, but she did enjoy their passion nonetheless. Angelo sat near by with an ice pack on his face the last hit he took from Bull Dempsey left a nasty knot upside his head. Sasha shook her head. The guy had been getting nothing, but shade treatment the last couple of months.

Then again so was she.

That was out of her hands she guessed and Summer was the one who was getting the opportunity next if she won the contender match against Bayley. For now she would have to deal with it.

Among dealing with things it had been quite chaotic around the E lately. A few days ago Emma was wrongfully accused of shoplifting. No one believed that bull in the slightest—that just wasn't Emma's thing. After it all fell out the COO fired her and reinstated her within hours. Strange that something like that would ever happen with edgy work politics that spread throughout the place...guess Emma must have had an angel on her side.

She picked up her buzzing phone as an incoming call from Summer Rae surprised her. Usually Summer only called for either a hand for a shopping binge or to bar hop on the coast. Neither of that came to mind at the moment. A margarita sounded great at the moment though.. "What is it?" Sasha said closing a few windows down as Angelo glanced over her shoulder.

"Are you busy?" Summer said with dismay in her tone. Sasha put the phone on speaker ready to tune out whatever nonsense creeping through the other line.

"Nope just surfing the web," Sasha said uninterested, Summer sighed.

"I'm sorry about your match with Alexa last week, me and Charlotte aren't too fond of each other lately."

"Obviously you two didn't consider the backfire and ruined my moment," Sasha snapped raising her voice. "What did you want, Summer?"

"Look, come to the arena tonight I have some information that may make you reconsider who you can really trust." Summer ended the conversation. Sasha was tired of the backhand games between the three of them and if going to the arena to hear whatever Summer had to say would fix it then fine.

"Whatever," Sasha said to herself. Enough with the pondering drama and social media. It was time for a run while the day was still alive. Heading downstairs into the lobby she wasn't expecting to see Charlotte—and though she was obviously in view, the blonde was too distracted by her father. Sasha took a detour around them just close enough to hear a few words.

"It'll be explosive," Ric Flair said with that wired look in his eyes, maybe he had a bit to drink, but that was no surprise to anyone by now. Sasha's ears twitched when Charlotte spoke about having to travel with the roster next week. Well good for her then. The shade was ample and so was her attitude.

Sasha jogged clearing her mind to some degree; the smoggy Connecticut air didn't help much, but did just enough, plus she swore something was burning.

Aside from it feeling as if things were burning metaphorically the last few weeks.

The photo damage was still in question, but no one had seem to ponder about it. Not to her knowledge at least. Damage however between herself, Charlotte, and Summer was starting to seem irreparable. Would it be beneficial for her to just cut them off altogether? Perhaps she was better off on her own without them. After all, she was the Boss, and last she checked, a boss worked for no one but their own damn self.

The nice brief jog around the city block and back to the hotel had seemed to be doing some wonders for her; it gave her enough time to do some hardcore thinking about things that were going on in her life. Summer and Charlotte? Screw'em, although she was curious enough to see what Summer had to potentially say to her. The Boss was going to have to make her own way to the top. As for Seth and Roman-

_Oof!_ Sasha hit the ground with a resounding thud. So deeply lost in her thoughts she hadn't even had time to register exactly where she was running towards, or more specifically, who she was running into. And of all people on this day, it couldn't have been John Cena or even Santino Marella. No, instead it had to be the cold-hearted Viper, Randy Orton.

The menacing man from St. Louis slowly turned around, a sneer growing a country mile on his face. Randy was definitely not impressed with the NXT rookie Diva. "Damn rookies, always barging into people like they think they own the place," Randy hissed, clearly in a foul mood. Losing out on the WWE World Heavyweight title would do that to anyone though.

"You gonna sit there and stare like a blank fish or are you gonna get the hell off my bag?" Randy said, shaking his travel bag to roll Sasha off of it.

"What the hell do you have in there, a dead body?" she responded snapping up to her feet. He didn't even have the chivalry to help her up. Well he was a bit of an asshole according to the majority of the roster. "And I have a name by the way."

"What's it to you?" Randy spat gleaming his ice cold all over her. Sasha crossed her arms feeling uneasy. "Of course you do," Randy scratched his head and glowered his gaze as if he was remembering how to spell. "Seth's call girl right?"

"What did you just say?" Sasha snapped at the viper, she did everything she could to avoid slapping the grin off his face.

"Hey now stay calm, Ms. Banks," he fired sarcasm back at her, "I'm only repeating the words that have been floating around about you."

Sasha shook her head as the crap from Randy's mouth smelled atrocious. "I'm not about to waste my time with your shit," she attempted to walk away.

"Now why would I have to lie about that? You're the one that got your photo leaked all over Perez Hilton and you really think it would disappear without a word?" Randy laughed. "On the main roster honey, we take notes. We know exactly who's meant to swim with sharks—it looks like you'll burn before you can even touch the water."

Sasha rolled her eyes and turned to walk away from Randy's douche baggery. Saying something would give him more fuel. Knocking his teeth out would get her in trouble—politics really did suck.

Not that he didn't have enough fuel. One thing she did agree with the viper on however, trust didn't last too long in the WWE and she only prayed a real war wouldn't break out.

**Monday night Raw 10:59 pm**

Sasha sat on a crate backstage waiting for Summer Rae. Earlier she caught her chatting with the Miz, for who knows what reason, but with Summer being the flirty and friendly blonde—it was expected that she would eventually drop Fandago for good; he was becoming a serious joke.

She finished watching Raw as it closed out strong with Reigns standing tall. He was definitely going to be the shining armor for the company soon and Sasha did indeed believe in him, but as her thoughts boiled into one—she knew that leading him on in anyway was wrong—whether or not his thing with AJ Lee was apparent, he obviously took an interest in both of them, so wasn't it more of a turnabout then? She came back to reality checking her phone, nothing from Rae yet. She headed to the locker room planning to catch Summer before she grabbed her things to end the night.

The locker room was empty and again that faint burning smell from earlier; probably from outside, but it was definitely adamant.

Sasha turned around to see someone in a hoodie walking her way. She couldn't really ID them, but she wasn't prepared to react to what was about to happen next.

It happened so fast, the pain on the back of her head felt like a sword had gone through it. The attacker grinning right at her with an ice cold stare as she tried to get to her feet. Unfortunately the power from hit brought her back down dizzy and fading away.

The last thing she heard was a pipe clinging to the ground.

_**Hey y'all! Thank you all for the feedback! Let me know what you think and keep them coming! Don't forget to check out the connecting stories of the Deadly Sins by RonTheRon "Pride" and Cody'sxFavoritexGirl "Insanity" and Mellyxbrooks "Envy" PikaSixJoy "Revenge'**_


	6. Regret

**Chapter 6**

Being blissfully unaware about something was comforting, however when it smacked you right in the face the feeling was cold, uneasy, and even a little discouraging.

Okay so at the moment it was painful and even with the amount of morphine they pumped into her veins the volcano inside her head still felt like it was about to erupt. She lifted her lids and immediately the burning sensation from the light her irises.

And as her eyes were at times deceiving; it was a few moments before she realized that there were other people in the room. The nurse who had given her the morphine shook her head before leaving the awkwardly unspoken

The remaining lingering eyes included the notorious Authority, minus Seth. Hunter had his arms crossed and signature grimace on his face. Stephanie glowered with worry while Kane held a small cup of coffee expressionless. The events had definitely drained everyone and Sasha was unfortunately one of the victims in this whole situation.

Her eyelids fluttered open and shut due to the effects of the morphine, but the Boss was a fighter; she was heavily anxious to see what exactly the Authority had to say to her. She had to admit it though, there was a certain uneasiness in the air and it probably would only be a matter of time before consequences and punishment were likely to be doled out.

"Sasha honey, how are you feeling?" Stephanie asked, touches of ingenuity in her voice here and there as she observed the condition of the NXT Diva.

"Not too bad. Wish I could feel better enough to be out of this cold hospital though," Sasha responded, and a slight gruff from Kane echoed that sentiment.

Ignoring Kane, Stephanie continued on. "We're very...grateful that Roman Reigns went back into the building and was able to save you before the entire arena collapsed. That was quite brave and thoughtful of him!" she exclaimed, a sly smile tugging on the edges of her lips.

Sasha scratched her head, quickly scrambling for thoughts, memories, or even fragments of what had happened last night. Did Roman really save her? She wish she could have known; all she could muster up was the pain she felt when her mysterious attacker took her out.

"Roman saved me? I can't remember..." Sasha murmured, but Stephanie patted her shoulder. "Honey it's okay, there were dozens of witnesses on hand to witness his heroics, and despite him being on our bad side, we do appreciate what he did to save your life," she said, taking a sip of her water from her canister.

"Enough of the pleasantries Steph, we came down here for other reasons besides checking on her," Hunter cut in rudely. Well thanks for caring boss, Sasha thought to herself. "Sasha, you've been making quite a lot of noise lately, not only for yourself, but for the company as well. That's very impressive; however, not a lot of it has been good press as you know," Hunter started. Sasha braced herself for what was coming. She knew Hunter was a very probing and intellectual person. The Game was not going to stop until he felt he had all the answers he needed to his questions.

"I mean, first you made the immature mistake of sending explicit photos to one of your fellow coworkers, and while I did let it go in the past, I'm feeling the need to know who it was now. So, who was it Sasha? Your brain may be scrambled right now, but I sure as hell know it isn't fried," the COO said, crossing his arms and his face growing even more darker than normal. Sasha laid still in her bed, her eyes not leaving the COO's for a second. One wrong move and her WWE career could potentially be over. She was starting to fall on the bad side of the boss, and that was one place she definitely preferred not to be. However, she wasn't about to rat out Roman's name to her superiors, no matter how confused she felt about him right now.

The Boss remained silent, but could feel the intense gaze of Hunter staring her down and melting her as if she were the wicked witch of the west. "I'm not going anywhere until I get some answers Sasha. We can do this all day," Hunter retorted. Sasha looked away to the other side of the room, feeling so attacked at the moment. "I said answer me damn it!" Hunter yelled, raising his voice to the level where the entire hospital facility could hear him.

As if a hospital bed would be enough to get a little sympathy. She cleared her throat. The ropes of the business in Hunter's eyes were one way—his and of course he wanted a solid solution.

"It was a really foggy night," Sasha said feeling the cards being thrown at her, "the only thing I remember that night—is the name of the drink I ordered and after that it was a blur."

The COO sighed, disgruntled at the answer. Stephanie placed a hand on his shoulder to tame his stance. "Look, Hunter give her some time—between now and last night the traumatic impact has us all on edge—we can't expect her to be clear on anything right now."

Sasha glowered her eyes as the worry from Stephanie's tone sank in. "Who did this..?" she grimaced rubbing the back of her head as she attempted to remember the face of the attacker.

"We have suspects," Stephanie said sitting on the edge of the bed next to Sasha, "but one in particular that we are adamant about."

"CM Punk," Hunter said wasting no time, "like his little wife—he's a bit of a psychopath and since no one has heard from him since he walked out, we're starting to think his vendetta plan is kicking in."

Sasha felt a rush of weakness fall over her, she raised a brow. "He has no reason to attack me..."

"Doesn't he?" Stephanie said referring to AJ Lee. It still didn't flow with her though; Punk attacking her over AJ? Maybe to get to Roman, but that didn't seem right either. Punk would've went straight for Roman..

Maybe.

"Take some time," Stephanie said making a gesture at the director of operations Kane and her husband, "you'll see things clearly when you get better," Stephanie glared her eyes as if she was giving a demand.

Better as in not being attacked by a psychopath? Sasha raised a brow as the power couple and director of operations left the room in dismay. Meddling through her thoughts wasn't going to help them get any answers. You only remembered as much as you wanted too. With documentations from the doctor after tonight she was good to go—still having to fight off what was left over from the concussion and a case of retrograde amnesia. It was far from over. The WWE and authorities had now been investigating the entire roster. Someone was going to get hit with an attempted murder and arson charge—and by the means of CM Punk being the assumed spearhead of the whole event, there was only one person that would be able to confirm that and it was her.

With Roman already being tormented by the authority more specifically the asshole Randy Orton. Sasha decided that maybe it was time to set the fun and games aside. Roman was fun to talk to and she enjoyed the harmless flirting from time to time, but now that the impact of the things were shifting she needed some time to let the drama die out. It didn't help that she wasn't exactly sure where her and Seth stood, but she didn't want to lead Roman on anymore regardless.

The real ride began after this last night in a suddenly peaceful hospital bed.

Sasha reluctantly checked out the hospital just shy from heading to the airport for Summerslam. She returned to her hotel room grabbing her luggage and along the way sending a text to Roman to meet up. She needed to speak with him before heading out to Los Angeles. Maybe it was a little too soon to be saying goodbye, but in time it would do some good. At least she hoped. It wasn't going to be easy—it needed to be done ASAP though.

Roman arrived quickly dressed in a black polo shirt and navy blue basketball shorts. His eyes were shaded by sunglasses and Sasha couldn't help but smile. Maybe it was a little too friendly, but with Roman's warm demeanor it was hard not to be. "Hi," she said a little nervous, "how are you?" The Samoan Thor returned the smile and gave a slight nod.

"I've been alright, as you know it's been a crazy couple of days," he responded sliding his shades off and rubbing around his eyelids, "and you?"

Sasha stood in silence almost searching for the correct words that explained she felt like someone was hitting her upside the head continuously with a pipe.

_Pipe. _

Sasha shook her head as the sound of the pipe hitting the ground flashed back into her memory.

"By the way, I never got a thank you for saving your skin back there last week," Roman chimed in as Sasha lost herself for a bit. With the memories being vague and just about obsolete Sasha only assumed it true, plus the mention from the authority at the hospital was crystal clear.

"You're right...I'm sorry.." she said shaking her head in confusion, "thank you."

"Anyway what's on your mind?" Roman checked the time on his phone for the both of them. Sasha crossed her arms getting a little more serious.

"Everything," she sighed, "mostly regret."

"Regret?" Roman raised a brow baffled by her words, "look I know things have been shitty lately, but come on.." Roman locked his eyes to hers trying to figure her out. "Why don't you just tell me what's really going on?"

"Things have been going downhill," she said in a low tone, "since the day we met."

"Downhill…" he said in an exasperated tone, "am I kryptonite to you or something?"

"One of us is," Sasha said looking to the side, "someone had a bad agenda out for the both of us, Roman. I'd rather it not get worse and if staying clear from each other makes it better for the both of us then so be it."

It was brash and bold, but it had to be done. Sasha grimaced on the inside at it because she really didn't have the intentions of being shady, but Roman accepted it and though angry he kept his cool and wished her well.

**Summerslam**

Sure enough it was go time for one of the biggest parties of the Summer. In actuality it was hell for a majority of the roster. With not knowing who or what was going around blindsiding people and attempting set ablaze the locker room. The Authority was set on CM Punk being the leader of such heinous events. Until a trial was set no one knew who did the damage, but that certainly didn't stop Hunter from pulling his strings to get Punk in handcuffs. Now since Sasha had gotten off of her flight—she had received at least thirty missed calls and twenty text messages. Most were from friends and family inquiring about her being.

She couldn't help, but search for the one from Seth.

Which was non-existent.

Maybe he had come to visit her-he had too, it's not like she would have known since she was pretty much out cold on morphine for at least five days. She sighed shaking her head in disbelief. Why wouldn't he? Too many questions and no answers was frustrating enough with no memory—but she would let that float away for now and enjoy what she could from the show tonight.

The arena's atmosphere was lively as the fans in L.A. bottle in their emotions from the great pay-per-view. Most of the favorites won. Seth stole one, but won nonetheless. Roman in her favor prevailed in his match against Randy.

Sasha yawned putting on some cool down music when strolling through backstage for a bit before leaving for the night. The following morning it was back home to NXT and between working shows—the timely investigation was going to be an addition to her busy schedule... The thought slipped from her mind when she heard a strange noise loud enough to blast her ear buds. Trotting down the hall in curiosity she was surprised to see the newly crowned divas champion—Paige; up to no good at that.

In minor shock Sasha blinked twice when witnessing the self-proclaimed anti-diva hover over the now former Diva's champion, AJ Lee.

AJ was in distress holding her gut and immobile as Paige delivered monstrous kicks; and well well—her partner in crime was the new crazy, Ms. Foxy.

With a weird big grin on her ghostly face; Paige looked over to Sasha and gave a wink as if bygones were made from the past.

She still didn't like the bitch..what was their lingo twat? Certainly she wasn't too fond of AJ at the moment because of the shade she pulled a few weeks ago. Shade should really be the facade for the locker room lately.

Sasha switched to her K-Pop rage music on her iphone, flipped her Malaysian back and shrugged.

AJ would find a way out it—she had been fighting her whole life now hadn't she?

Sasha walked towards the exit, but came to a sudden halt at the desperate words of AJ. "Sasha...help me…"

_Dammit_. Was all her guilty conscience and morals throbbed in the back of her head. She cursed beneath her breath and ran towards the locker room. Alicia stood in front the attack as if she a lioness.

Too bad it was only the hair that made her look scary in which Sasha proceeded to snatch her by her Rihanna roots clocked her a few times and tossed the bitch right into the large waste basket. Paige turned her attention towards Sasha giving her a baffled yet grimy look. "What the hell are you doing?"

"I could ask you the same thing," Sasha fired back getting into the face of the Diva's champion.

"Why would you care?" Paige said giving a slight laugh, "isn't she on your hit list?"

"I don't need anyone to cater to my problems, boo." The last word had emphasis.

"I was doing you a favor,"

"I didn't fucking ask for one." Sasha clenched her fist.

"Sasha...relax," Paige said grabbing her divas title and throwing it over her shoulder, "you don't have to pretend you care." The divas champion gave a questionable smile and skipped away down the hall not even bothering to check on Alicia. Sasha shook her head and looked down at AJ who struggled to her feet while using the wall for support.

"Thank you," AJ said coughing her lungs up, "I—,"

"Sure," Sasha said rolling her eyes, "do you need a medic?"

"I didn't expect you help me after what I said to you," AJ confessed with her eyes grazing with moisture, "I'm sorry..."

"Alright," Sasha said giving a slight nod. There was no need to stick around anymore; AJ was in the clear from Paige. She spun to leave the locker room, but AJ didn't want stop the chatter.

"Sasha..,," AJ said limping to a chair nearby, "I know the authority spoke to you about, Punk."

"Vaguely," There was a period of silence.

"He wasn't the one who attacked you," AJ glanced down to the ground.

"Do you know who did?" Sasha glared in her direction. To think that last week she was all over Roman and suddenly she remembered she had a husband.

"I don't, but I do know that Punk would never do that."

"I know it wasn't him," Sasha said without hesitation, "I wouldn't let someone innocent go down for this."

"I wish you knew. We need to free Punk and prove his innocence!" AJ said, hugging a CM Punk bobble-head to her chest.

"I wish I knew AJ," Sasha responded, staring at a picture of the Payback 2014 poster. "I wish I knew."


	7. Two-Face

**Chapter 7**

The crowd at Madison Square Garden was electric. Jeering for the divas match something that had been becoming more apparent as the division was finally getting the shine that it longed for. NXT Divas and Superstars swooping in for the spotlight was becoming the new game in the orders of COO himself Triple H. Still unsure whether he was at wit's end on the repressed information that Sasha lost at the attack a few weeks ago. Hunter and Stephanie giving her this opportunity was planned long ago; however eventually their patience would run low. They were going to want to know who attacked her.

Okay. More like they wanted her to throw former WWE superstar CM Punk under the bus. As much as Sasha wanted to give the answers the Authority wanted. In her soul she couldn't let an innocent man take the wrap for a crime—no matter what benefits it may bring to her. She just didn't like getting _that _dirty.

Sasha and Charlotte left the ramp as the intensity from the crowd sent chills down their backs. "Great job, ladies!" Stephanie McMahon met the two behind the curtain. "You two were very comfortable for the first time on the big stage, I'm looking forward to seeing the both of you on the main roster very soon."

"It's truly an honor," Sasha said flashing a big smile in the surreal moment.

"It's in my blood," Charlotte added with her head held high, "this divas division belongs to me-" Charlotte paused glaring over to Sasha, "us."

As much as Sasha wanted to slap the bull out of mouth—she kept her composure as the moment for the both of them meant everything even if they didn't quite see eye to eye. Sasha gave the shady smile she knew would get under Charlotte's skin as they both headed to the locker room.

"So, your match against Bayley for the number one contender-ship to my title is tomorrow," Charlotte said grabbing a bottle of water and taking a swig.

"One step closer to the gold," Sasha said nodding in confidence not hiding her crave for the prize at all.

"Obviously this leaves our tagging to an indefinite end," Charlotte with a cocky grin.

"You don't want to tag anymore?" Sasha gave a mutual nod, but still the shade was a long time coming—so she couldn't help, but feel a tad upset. "I expect this from you...especially after all I've done for you."

"What can I say?' You and Summer were holding me down every since this little alliance started."

"Holding you down?" Sasha instantly blew a gasket, "I was the fucking glue to this trio—and as a matter of fact Summer and I got a long just fine until you waddled your duck ass into the picture!"

"Easy," the trickling voice from the sidelines chipped in. The long veteran diva Natayla mediated the two like a mother trying to control her erratic children. "you two good?"

Sasha rolled her eyes wanting to punch the teeth from the both of them. "Yeah, fantastic," she turned to Charlotte, "you know what? Good luck boo, cause you're going to need it."

"Yeah, right." Charlotte returned the animosity as Natayla took a seat next to her. Sasha grabbed her duffel and stormed out of the locker room.

Fired up, Sasha left the arena with her blood boiling over and if anything could be worse it was the mere sighting of Seth Rollins propped up against his car phone surfing-casually at that, but that wasn't anything to be directly angry over.

It was the fact that she hadn't heard from him; a few days before the attack was the last time they had spoken.

Sasha was getting really tired of the shade and apparently Seth had two shades.

Guess that was how things played out. You really knew who cared about you at your worst moment. She had given him the benefit of the doubt since things had been so chaotic, but even after getting out not a whisper in the wind.

Not even damn text message asking if she was alright.

Sasha sighed heavily as mind jumbled into a mess. Seth looked up to see her climbing into her rental. "Going so soon?" Seth said hopping a few cars to get to her. Sasha didn't know what to say or maybe she just felt a response was pointless.

"Yes," she said sternly tossing her duffel into the back seat.

"You're upset," Seth grimaced reading her expression, "what's wrong?"

"Absolutely nothing, Seth," Sasha spat, "I didn't just get my head bashed in recently—and not a damn thing from you either."

"Hey now," Seth said grabbing her hands, "it's not like that."

"You are one shady mother fucker," Sasha said impulsively, "what ever this Authority is...they've changed you."

"No," Seth said glaring at her, "I've changed me—no one ever advances in life without buying in. I flipped a coin and changed my fate."

"And you stabbed everyone you loved in the back while doing so."

"It didn't seem to bother you before," Seth said raising a brow, "but then again I wouldn't be surprised if Reigns has gotten into your head," Seth squeezed his fist.

"Roman didn't change my perception at all, Seth. I was blindly attacked in a burning building and left for dead—that's enough to make me think about right and wrong."

"I'm glad you're okay."

"Good to know after six days in the hospital with no word from you."

"The Authority didn't want anyone near you after the disaster," Seth explained, "Believe me, I tried."

"Did you?" Sasha argued, "because the day I walked out the hospital I hoped that you've would've been there waiting for me."

Seth stood in silence moving through his thoughts. Sasha had enough of this grueling pattern. Earlier this year before and around mania Seth had done the same thing. They were great and everything seemed alright, but then something had changed his mind—and maybe Sasha should just let him alone.

"I have a flight to catch," Sasha slid into the drivers seat and sped off.

* * *

This night marked the international release of the WWE network and as a grand promotion all the NXT stars were in attendance along with select WWE superstars. Sasha had finished her meet and greet with with fans and headed to the party room. She said hello to her fellow colleagues and went over to the food table. She only had assumed something was in the punch bowl because Summer and Miz had been giddy from afar. Lucky for her Joey Mercury was handing out iced tea as a great alternative. The Boss wasn't really in turn up mood for the night. It could have been her conscience telling her to be weary, but that craving for a margarita was no where to be found.

Seth Rollins walked into the venue.

Sasha rolled her eyes and quickly found a seat between Tyler Breeze and Angelo.

"Did you clear your icloud?" Tyler said snapping a quick selfie "some internet freak hacked the system and now everyone's nudes are on twitter."

"Man, too bad they didn't any of Rihanna," Angelo said shaking his head.

"You don't have hack ICloud to get a nude photo of Rihanna—she's always naked," Sasha sighed as Tyler and Angelo nodded in agreement, "My photo was already leaked so if it leaks again it's not going to make any difference."

"Fair enough," Tyler agreed fixing a loose strand of his hair moving his eyes in the other direction, "you have a visitor." Sasha turned to see Nikki Bella surprisingly approaching with a gentle smile on her face and a glass of red in hand.

"Can I talk to you for a moment?" Nikki asked. Sasha gave slight nod getting to her feet and following Nikki over to a less crowded corner. The boss must have gotten up too fast because the floor almost slipped from beneath her and her head had become foggy.

"You okay?" Nikki said grabbing Sasha's arm. Sasha nodding blinking a few times as the lights in the venue pierced her irises.

"Yeah, I'm good," Sasha responded clearing her throat. It had been a long day. "What is it?"

"I wanted to congratulate you," Nikki said in a sincere tone, "the divas division has been on the rise lately; and you and Charlotte definitely brought your A-games signaling the future."

"That's all we thrive to do," Sasha agreed, "always."

"You know I've been thinking," Nikki advised taking a sip of wine, "you'd be a perfect candidate for the Authority."

Sasha laughed shaking her head. Of course..Nikki just betrayed her own damn blood and now she was a runner for The Authority. Just another corporate junkie that she couldn't trust.

"No thanks..I'm not into playing with fire," Sasha bellowed as her head felt even lighter. Unsure what this sudden feeling was coming from she glanced over to the iced tea she had finished fifteen minutes ago.

Fuck.

She needed to sit down.

None of that was happening though—the one person she had been trying to avoid was in her face right as she attempted to depart from the Bella twin.

" 'scuse me," Sasha said trying to push past Seth. She moved faster than her body allowed her to and her head was in a full blown spin; she fell right into his chest.

"You need to sit down," Seth gently lead her away from the dance floor, "how much have you—"

"Something is in that god damn—" Sasha stopped mid sentence when she realized that Seth had led her into a room.

"What is this?" Sasha asked as an uncanny feeling crawled up her spine.

"The light's and noise seemed to be bothering you," Seth said taking a seat across from her, "I wanted to talk...

"I told you I was done..."

"I know you did, and I don't care," Seth said frankly. His heavy sigh spoke volumes to Sasha on just how serious the two-toned Superstar was being right now.

"You ever try living each and every day in your life knowing that once you do something you'll regret it? Even before you do it?" Seth inquired, as he stared blankly into Sasha's eyes. "I do, and every day I regret what I did to my Shield brothers," he said in a flat manner.

"I don't believe you. I'm done listening to your lies," Sasha hissed. She wasn't about to fall for any more of this man's lies. Not anymore.

"I'm not lying Sasha. I did regret it...but not anymore. I got tired of the shade. Tired of being swept under the rug in favor of a borderline psycho and an overhyped Samoan with muscles. You can't tell me you didn't feel the same way in the BFFs," he taunted with precise cunning.

Sasha gritted her teeth. She knew part of what he was saying was true. Summer got plenty of hype because of her looks and legs, and even landed a movie role in a WWE Film. Charlotte won the NXT Women's championship not even one year after being on NXT television. Plus, her father was the legendary Ric Flair and that was one of Triple H's best buddies. Go figure.

Yes, Sasha could feel the shade, and it was very cold. And yet here was Seth, presumably offering her a way out of the darkness and back into the light. But something within her told her not to shake his hand.

"Yes Seth I did feel that way. But I didn't stab them in the back like your fucking ass did. I'm done with you and your games. Now let go of me," the Boss yelled, shaking loose of Seth's grip and struggling towards the open door. Her vision was hazier than the pollution in the Los Angeles skyline.

Seth shook his head, but not before an unseen crooked smile crossed his facial features. "Alright Sasha, I gave you an opportunity," he said, rushing over to open the door to let her out, "so just remember that when your WWE career goes up in smoke," Seth sneered, walking out of the room and the party altogether.

Sasha rolled her eyes, or at least she thought she did, as she finally was able to stagger back up to her own two feet. Heading back to the main hotel lobby, she was kind of surprised to see that most of the guests had already cleared out and were either leaving in their cars or were heading into their rooms.

She managed to spot Joey Mercury, one of the NXT trainers and head producers for both Raw and SmackDown, making haste with the cleanup. "Hey Joey!" Sasha called out, stumbling her way over to him. "You got any aspirin? My head is killing me," Sasha said, using the wall to hold her up on her own two feet. What the hell was in that drink?

Joey finished cleaning the tables, and stared at Sasha Banks blankly for at least a full blown two minutes before speaking. "Sasha, have you ever had a savior before? Someone who would just lay it all on the line for you and help you gain any opportunity you may seek?" he questioned, taking a seat across from her while she struggled to stand.

"Huh?" Sasha blinked, as Joey shook his head and continued. "Everyone goes through those dark times in their lives. Lord knows I have. And just when you wanna give up, somebody comes by and lends you a hand, and helps you get back on your feet. I've had that happen too," Joey continued as Sasha's mind started to burn. She needed to lay down. NOW.

"Then you start to follow that savior, and you do everything that your savior teaches you to do. Then one day, once you think you've finally gotten the message and hang of everything, your savior walks out on you and vanishes. As if he was never there...and then it becomes very clear that everything your savior taught you was a lie. A straight, bald faced lie," Joey said, anger starting to build up in his tone.

"Joey, I don't know what the hell you're going on about, but I really need somebody to come and get me some medical help…" Sasha said, starting to hear weird whirring sounds going on around her. Dizziness was starting to set in and she could definitely feel she was starting to lose it.

"You look fine to me Sasha. Besides, saviors who tell you lies deserve to burn for their lies and sins, don't you think? A mother never turns her back on her children so a savior should never mislead his followers and disciples. My savior is currently paying for his sins and transgressions as we speak, and I think maybe it's about time you confessed to yours Sasha," Joey said, placing a hood over his head.

Her anxiety at an all time high and her heart nearly skipping beats, Sasha was finally starting to understand what exactly was going on here. As her eyes glowered towards the door, she noticed both Mr. Money In the Bank Seth Rollins standing there on the outside, alongside an elegantly dressed Nikki Bella, who took a few sips of her moscato and waved to Sasha, infuriating her.

Using what was left of her energy, Sasha made a break for the door, but that plan was quickly put into flames when the opposition of Big E, Kofi Kingston, and Xavier Woods stood in her way.

"Enough with...the games guys," Sasha pleaded, "I don't want any trouble…"

"Games?" Xavier said adjusting his suit, "we're not tossing you chances anymore."

"It's your word against Punk is the only thing that will eliminate him for good," Seth stated, "it's all or nothing."

"Burn in hell!," Sasha snapped slapping him across the face, "I would never let an innocent man suffer for a crime he didn't commit!"

Seth gritted his teeth tasting the blood on his lip after the hard slap from Sasha. He grabbed her shoving her against the wall, hard. "Who attacked you, Sasha?" Seth demanded the answer.

Sasha gasped catching her breath from the impact. She truly did not know who this man was anymore. "I don't know!" she coughed out the only answer she knew.

"Wrong answer," Seth reached into his back pocket pulling out something that at first blurred in the vision of Sasha's, but then made her heart shatter as the room became rigid cold. Seth took the 9mm and slid it across her chest, placing it against her heart.

"No...," Sasha shook out the words, "this... isn't what you want, Seth."

"It's not about what I want, it's about what's fair."

**Thanks guys! Keep the reviews coming! I love feedback! Sorry about the delay in updating!**

**Follow these stories as well in our interconnected universe:**

**Pride by RonTheRonin **

**Envy by MellyxBrooks**

**Revenge by PikaSixJoy**

**Insanity by Cody'sxFavoritexGirl**

**And Bootleg by Bobby Hill (JK)**

**BAci!**


	8. Banks Takeover

**Chapter 8**

**Enjoy!**

Whether it was heads or tails, the outcome would be the same. You either chose to conform into the social expectations of the superior group. Or you rebelled risking an exclusion indefinitely.

Some would like to say; Adapt or perish.

With that thought Sasha stood in the arms of Seth Rollins as he held the 9mm against her heart. Someone who was supposed to love you—took your life into their hands and dangled it from a thread.

Aside from the anxiety and grueling coldness—was a shattered heart.

She had never been so afraid or felt so betrayed and by the man she loved at that.

It didn't matter if he pulled the trigger now; the outcome would be the same; she would be dead either way. Sasha looked into Seth's eyes wondering if she could find him again, but this time his dark irises lead her no where.

He was gone.

"Well.. this is creepy," A familiar voice from the side joined the situation, "I thought this was a wrestling company, not a cheesy horror film."

Seth's ears perked up instantly snapping to the far corner of the room—it was none other than Chris Jericho himself sneering their way.

"Great, more bodies to add to the bag," Seth shoving Sasha over to Big E.

"What's wrong with you..." Sasha whimpered as the energy from whatever was in her system sucked right out of her.

"You do realize," Jericho started in a mix of sarcasm, he took off his sun glasses glaring Seth's way, "she's the only leverage you have against Punk, you'll be setting The Authority ten steps back if you kill her now."

"The Authority is always ten steps ahead," Seth fired.

"After they rummage through the erratic messes you make, sure."

"I clean up nice, actually."

"Very funny, Seth." Jericho said unimpressed by the dry humor, "I thought with you being the architect of The Shield and all, you would use your brain to your advantage."

"You know something, Chris," Seth blinked once then aimed the gun at Jericho. "You're right, process of elimination-" Seth cocked the gun at Chris pulling the trigger fast. Sasha jumped covering her mouth as the sound of the limp body hit the ground.

"Take her to the car," Seth waved Big E and Kofi to his orders, "I'll take care of this." The two men complied leading Sasha out to the van; she'd be stupid to cause a scene or try to flee. With others around—there was a high potential of bystanders getting hurt in the mix. She climbed into the SUV hoping that she would slip out of the nightmare—it was even too real for that, she thought.

Reality was a nightmare.

"Take her home for now," the muffled voice scratched through the speaker phone—Sasha almost recognized it.

Seth Rollins blew off his smoking gun, proud of his dark deed he had accomplished to this day. Not only was he going to be able to take care of Sasha as well as his Roman Reigns problem, but he was able to take out a WWE Legend in Chris Jericho.

"Sucks to be you Jericho. My condolences go out to you and your family," he said starting to turn away from his fallen foe. "Mercury get your ass off that desk and tell Noble it's time to move out," he said, and as Hunter's goons quickly packed up their bags to get the hell out of dodge, Seth could hear some coughing noise that caught his attention.

He quickly spun around and there he was-Jericho was back on his feet once more with that ever present cocky grin on his face. "What? It's called a bulletproof vest jackass! I invented it!" Jericho exclaimed. Seth quickly reached for the gun on his side, but gasped when he realized it wasn't there. He looked outside to see the Usos making off with his weapons as well as some of his bags.

"I really like those guys. They are Uso Crazy, don't you think?" Jericho smirked, before stepping up and hitting Rollins with a sick Enzugiri, followed by a Codebreaker.

The self-proclaimed Best In the World at everything he does quickly sought out Big E, Kofi, and Woods coming his way. While the Usos got out quickly, taking out Mercury and Noble in the process, Jericho wouldn't be so lucky. Making his way up the stairs, Jericho found the elevator shaft and hit the "Roof" option, finding his way to the roof to get away.

The great escape indeed.

* * *

The next generation had arrived. It was the third NXT PPV of the year-per usual the excitement was high as all of the young and new talent prepared for positive futures in the WWE. Since Hunter had taken full control of the innovative NXT, the product had become a standing ovation and had been quickly becoming a successful brand.

JoJo finished the last of her jasmine tea and light honey before slinging her duffel bag over her shoulder and shooting a quick text to her travel buddy and good friend Sasha. Usually Sasha would be the one hassling Jojo to get to the car, but for the time being the role had flipped and she beat her to it. She headed across the apartment complexes straight to the ebony Honda Civic and threw her duffel in the back seat. Sitting in the passengers seat, she let the radio play singing a long with whatever lyrics caught her attention. The music made for a good voice warm up before getting to the arena; and it made time fly for waiting on Sasha. She must have been lost in the art because almost twenty minutes went by and she didn't notice.

Now that was a little strange because Sasha was never one to run late on any task she had especially work.

JoJo quickly hopped out the car and took the stairs up to Sasha's unit. She tapped on the door a few times checking her surroundings instinctively.

The hall was completely ghostly, but somebody's eyes were on her. Frowning, she reached into her bag for the spare key—mainly to avoid the paranoid feeling in her gut, but also just in case something was really out there...

She keyed the door open, shutting it behind her and small sigh left her mouth as she locked the door. JoJo was just in time to see Sasha coming out of her bed room with her duffel on one arm and a large black plastic bag in the other hand. Letting the bag go, Jojo thought the large clanking noise almost put a dent into the hardwood floor. She examined her friend closely; the low lids and dark circles either meant she had gotten little to no sleep. The weary reaction meant something was distracting her—and the redness in her eye vessels either meant A-her allergies flared like a bitch in the Florida humidity today or—she had several dates with Montalvo Tequila Plata-JoJo glanced at the plastic bag on the floor and confirmed that last theory.

She almost didn't want to ask.

"Are you alright?" She said as Sasha opened the front door and lead the both of them down the hall to the back stairway.

"Yeah," Sasha responded clearing her throat then tightening her lips. They two climbed into the car. JoJo took the drivers seat figuring her friend was way to exhausted and hungover to operate a moving vehicle.

"I'm guessing you had a long night after the network party?" JoJo lighten her tone a little.

"Longer than expected,"

"Why? Anything memorable happen?" She tuned the radio to an upbeat station.

"Long story—short—I got the answers I needed about where me and Seth stand."

JoJo arched a brow glancing at her friend when the red light hit. "What's the status?"

Sasha remained silent. It was enough to answer the question and burn the conversation indefinitely.

"He's not who I wanted him to be," Sasha finally said as the two stepped out the car. They headed into the Full Sail University athletic building where all the NXT stars were preparing for the show. A good time to get your mind in the zone and off of any and everything, but the show.

The COO had already been assembling the production crew and multitasking orders if need be.

Jojo and Sasha joined the rest of the divas in the locker room. Immediately Charlotte flashed a smile towards them in a "welcoming" fashion. A scoff let from Sasha and she rolled her eyes in return. JoJo shrugged smiling back just for the sake of it. Bayley, Alexa, and Becky entered just in time for the gathering.

Kind of.

The animosity was already set when the west end girls stiffened their attitudes. Sasha said nothing to Char, but the atmosphere in the room was ablaze.

"So overjoyed that I get to defend my title against someone so worthy, Bayley," Charlotte jeered towards the cheerful diva. "Someone who deserves a shot."

Sasha spun around giving an ice cold glare at Flair. "And I don't?!" She said slamming the locker door. "You would not be here if it wasn't for me!"

"Summer created the BFF's and you just stood in the shadow hoping that you would be noticed," Charlotte shrugged with a cocky grin.

"Bitch, I held this group together," Sasha stepped closer to the blonde. All eyes were glued on the two. "I taught you everything I knew," she tranced into a laugh, "but of course that was before you realized you needed your father to make it anywhere in this business."

"Is that right?" Charlotte summoned her Championship, "because if that were true, shouldn't you be the one holding this now?"

"Your last name is the reason why you're holding that title and you know it."

"Guys, come on there's no need to fight," Bayley nervously added, "we've all worked hard to get where we are toda—,"

"Bayley, just stop, this isn't girl scouts sweetie," Sasha cut her off.

"You don't have to be so mean, Sasha." Charlotte had a higher than usual pitch in her tone, while patting Bayley on the back. Really? JoJo shook her head.

"Mean? When you're the one being a fake and walking all over her?" Sasha glanced at Bayley, "Stop letting people take advantage of your kindness and take those fucking hugs and turn them into balls!" Sasha fired.

"Jealousy has really turned you nasty," Charlotte grimaced.

"I'm not jealous of your basic ass, I just know what I deserve."

"Maybe you would have the title if you spent less time on top of Seth and Roman—are there any other names you need me to add to that list?"

Sasha snapped wringing her hands around Charlotte's throat. "I'm sick of you, bitch!" Sasha slammed Charlotte into the lockers and chaos had risen. The girls scrambled trying to separate the two the claws from killing each other. There was a loud bang on the door and JoJo shuffled her way out of the mess and opened it.

"What the hell is going on in there?" The COO, Triple H sneered his eyes at the petite diva. He looked over his shoulder seeking out Sara Del Rey.

"Sara get in there and bring me the initiators!" Sara quickly nodded running into the locker room.

"Break it up!" She said pulling Sasha away from Charlotte. "What the hell is going on here?!"

"I'll kill her!" Sasha said charging at Charlotte again, Sara barely caught her in time, "Alright let's sort this out." She lead her out of the locker room.

Tonight was definitely going to be a mess.

JoJo gathered what was left of her locker before going straight to the prep room for a voice warm up. A few ways down the campus hall she caught a glimpse of Sami Zayn shuffling through a few file folders, and carefully at that. JoJo slowed her steps pushing the door open lightly. She faked a cough "Did you forget your homework or something?" She joked pointing to the stack. "Or will you be singing a song tonight too?"

Sami quirked a brow and gave a sincere smile. "Last minute script details," he said shrugging and examining the paper, "looks like we have no changes

"Do we ever?" JoJo smiled raising a brow. It was a little strange to see Sami in the music room of all places. Usually Hunter kept hold of the scripts, but she guessed that may have changed. Whatever. Today was far from normal anyway.

"I'm surprised everyone's so calm today," he said as if he was in deep thought, "especially after what went down last night."

"What?" JoJo said completely in the dark, "and calm...not so much a fight just broke a minute ago."

"Let me guess?" Sami quipped, "A Sasha and Charlotte brawl finally combusted."

"The animosity between them has only gotten worse, it was inevitable. I kinda miss Total Divas." JoJo shook her head. "What went down last night?"

"Hey it could be a rumor" he said throwing up his hands, "but word is that there were gunshots heard outside the Marriott last night."

JoJo's jaw dropped. "Hopefully it's just a rumor." The part her friend didn't tell her.

* * *

Sasha breathed hard as Sara led her into the COO's office. She didn't give a fuck. Her emotions were heightened—she only saw red and no amount of authority was going to make her any less of that. Sara closed the door behind them as Triple H glared her way. She took a seat in front of the COO, leaning back into the chair and crossing her arms. Hunter dropped a pen onto the table—the thing almost sounded like a pipe hitting the ground. Sasha squeezed her eyes shut as the light seemed too bright all of a sudden.

"What was that?" Hunter demanded squaring off her way. Sasha, replaying every moment from last night responded the only way she sought right.

"Why don't I have a shot at the title tonight?" Hunter was slightly thrown off by the question, he motioned to Sara who then left the room.

"Look Sasha you're exactly where you need to be," he started, "I've mentioned various times that patience will bring you exactly what you hope for."

"But since Charlotte has the better last name she gets the chance before me?"

"You're being difficult," Hunter replied, "patience will take you a long way, but dammit bursting into fights is unprofessional."

"And your little dirty behind the door politics are?" Sasha blurted, "especially with what your lackeys pulled last night."

Hunter gritted his teeth. "First of all, don't you ever use that tone of voice with me," Hunter had a hard line across his forehead. "And what the hell are you talking about, last night?"

Sasha's eyes straight ahead seeing the walls darken before her. "The launch party." With Hunter being the head of the Authority, there was no point in telling him about the grim crashing the night before.

He knew damn well what the hell was going on.

"I've never had any trouble from you until you started associating with Reigns," he found his way out of the subject somehow.

"Well you won't have to worry about that anymore," Sasha rolled her eyes.

"Great, now let's talk about your punishment for your actions tonight, "Boss," Hunter put emphasis on his sarcasm.

What an asshole.

"Since you want break into an irate rage, let's see how you'll do in a gauntlet, tonight."

"Tonight...?" Sasha said holding the side of head. As if it could pound any harder.

Hunter gave a nod, gleaming in contentment. "You know, I'm high up on your potential, despite all of this chaos."

Sasha's silenced. Waiting for him to burst into laughter, but he didn't.

"There's a reason why I picked you, Sasha." Hunter said motioning towards the door. Sasha stood to her feet looking back at Hunter. Dawning down memory lane the black and white images creeping through her mind.

The pieces would bind together sooner or later, but for the time being she just needed to survive whatever bullets were shot her way.

* * *

The panel was ready as the live showing of NXT Takeover Fatal Four-way had begun. Jojo warmed her vocals up with a few soft notes as Sami encompassed himself in various stretches and warm-ups. Sami noticed JoJo abruptly stop her singing crossing her arms in dismay. He hopped over to her unfolding a chair and sitting next to her. "You okay?" He asked taking swig from his water bottle. JoJo shrugged.

"I don't know if I'm nervous or paranoid," Jojo said looking over her shoulder, "I feel like someone's been watching me all day."

Sami raised a brow, placing his hand on her shoulder. "Definitely nerves," he said giving a wink, "and there will be plenty watching you tonight."

"Right," JoJo slightly smiled and gave a nod, "I just have this eerie feeling," she shook her head and took a deep breath.

"You'll be amazing, like always," Sami gently squeezed her into a hug. JoJo relaxed nodding as the two locked eyes.

"SAWFT!" Enzo said making the two jump out of their gaze. Him and Big Cass were hyping up the place with random words of encouragement. Guess it was an Italian thing.

Following behind them was newer face to the NXT division. Hugo Knox. Straight out of Chester the English ex-Futbol player was ready to make way in the WWE. Bred to be in a physical business, he sure did catch a lot of eyes in the background. However, his eyes only glued to one person.

Sasha Banks.

Could he be any more obvious? The creepy glares and suggestive tweets told the story, but the strange look was more than just bold; he had an agenda.

That piece of paper only gave a list of names, Sami thought to himself, but the connection was still a very scattered puzzle.

* * *

The Pre-show for Takeover kicked off with Sasha taking a seat at the panel. She gave a cocky smile. Alex Riley crawling like a cockroach thought it would be cute open up his mouth about how jealous Sasha was of Charlotte. "You need to-," he started his rant, but Sasha quickly squashed his "game".

"I'm the Boss of NXT, you do not tell me what I need to do to make it to the top," she fired getting in his face.

"Where's my merchandise? Did you think that I was just going to wither into the background while the shadow of daddy flair gets everything handed to her?!" Sasha raised her voice even louder. "I'm the HBIC, I'm the reason why Charlotte has that title! And I want what rightfully belongs to me!"

Alex Riley choked up from fear chimed in about the added gauntlet to the PPV. "Your gauntlet match has been added to the card tonight, then if you're not all talk you can prove if you're really the HBIC."

"Don't sass me," Sasha put her finger in his face, "I'll show all you," she snapped looking directly at the camera lens, "and Charlotte, doll, this is far from over, when I'm done with you, you'll be doing everything with "flop" not "flair." Sasha threw the headsets off and stormed to the backstage area. She breathed in as the anger fired her up, those words were more real than anything she had ever said.

She took a seat on a crate backstage taking out her phone and lingered over the call button.

Roman could help her with the authority. Did he even want to anymore? After the way she went about things she wasn't sure.

No. She thought to herself. No need to warp people up in to clean up the mess. She had to face whatever wrath the Authority was bringing to her alone.

As if they could do anything worse than what they've done already.

To think this all started with a silly photograph. Sure the Authority had plans in motion long before that, but for her to inadvertently get involved was baffling.

Yet here she was meddling in her thoughts, anxious as hell, and wondering if she could trust anyone.

With the Authority being the biggest threat amongst everyone now; it was hard to know who you could and could not trust. The NXT stars had to suffer with never knowing who's favor they fell upon.

Sasha pinned her hair up and leaned back onto the crate. The monitor nearby played the show live—she'd wait until it was her time to drag Charlotte again and then of course her gauntlet.

So now all of sudden she gets to take on every diva and prove to Hunter-or rather the Authority why she deserved to be here.

Not the words of Hunter himself, but basically that's the only way Sasha could see this punishment going.

It seemed a bit tamed for Hunter's taste though; he seemed to be more ruthless than that, but who knew?

Sasha watched the television screen. Minutes skipped by before she realized that someone had been sitting next to her.

"How long have you been there?" Sasha said quickly sitting up. Hugo Knox perked a brow and gave a warm smile.

"Not too long, thought you may want some company watching the show tonight," he shrugged.

Not really. Sasha was in sour mood for the most part and couldn't even stand her own company, but since he was just watching the show. Fine.

"Not a problem," she forced a smile, both of them turned their eyes to the screen.

"I've taken notice to your dismay," Hugo's English accent broke the silence again. Sasha nodded slightly.

"You heard about my fight with Charlotte."

"Along with all the other drama..."

"I don't need to be reminded that my life is one big shamble," Sasha spat irritated.

Hugo gave her a confused look holding up his hands. "I'm not at all trying to offend or upset you, Sasha."

Sasha shook her head. "I'm sorry—its been a crazy couple of weeks." she sighed.

"Isn't that the way of life?" Hugo patted her on the back, "you'll pull through, and maybe finally answer the text messages I've sent you?"

Sasha let out a small laugh and raised a brow. She scrolled through her phone and found the few messages he had sent her over the past couple of weeks.

She hadn't answereda single one of them. Let alone even _looked_ at them.

"Shit, I'm sorry it's been so fucking hectic," Sasha said slumping her shoulders over.

"Hey no apologies, I understand," Hugo said giving a reassuring smile, "but tonight...what you say we take some of those lemons and make margaritas?"

"I'll think about it," Sasha responded catching the time on her phone, "I'll let you know after my gauntlet."

The gauntlet was all hers now. To say Hunter never given her the spotlight she deserved would be a lie. Tonight she needed to take the NXT divas division by their roots and live up to her label. Sasha stood in the middle of the ring doing small stretches as she waited for her first opponent to come out.

Well wasn't it the glittery little miss bliss.

Alexa hopped into the ring blowing Disney kisses to the audience. Sasha let her have her moment before taking her down to the mat and delivering several punches to the pretty fairies face. The referee pulled her off to cool down, but Sasha found her way back to Bliss grabbing a handful of her blonde/blue hair and throwing her in the corner of the ring. Sasha quickly put her into a footchoke, letting the ref count to four; she let her drop like a rag-doll. Alexa got in a quick counter as she bounced off the ropes taking Sasha down with a smooth hurricanrana. The ring spun for a moment; that headache had gone no where, but Sasha would fight through it. Alexa blindsided Sasha with a springboard Enzugiri. Sasha rolled out of the ring catching her breath. The crowd started their senseless "Sasha's ratchet" chants. Sasha covered her ears at the rude fans. Alexa turned for a second getting a positive pop from the crowd. Sasha slid under the ropes sweeping Alexa off her feet and face first into the mat. She laughed.

"Come on Alexa!" She yelled as the petite diva rolled over holding her mouth. Small trickles of blood ran down her lip. Sasha gave her a nice hard slap making it bleed even more.

"You'll be fine honey it's just a scratch," Sasha taunted scooping Alexa up and slamming her down again.

Alexa crawled to her feet using Sasha for support. The Boss sneered down at her nodding her head at the fight Alexa was putting up. A true underdog.

Too bad it was over now.

Sasha twisted Alexa into the Bankrupt and pinned her for the three count.

One down.

The referee raised her hand for the first win.

The blazing music of the hardcore Becky Lynch filled Full Sail University. Sasha cracked her knuckles as Lynch stepped into the ring.

Sasha did a taunt out to the crowd.

"Who's the baddest?" That mistake gave her a very heavy clothesline from Lynch. Sasha held her lower back and Becky went for the pin.

The ref didn't make it to two and Sasha pushed Becky off her. The two brawled for a minute before locking up. Sasha got the upper hand with a front suplex.

\Lynch got to her feet going for another clothesline, but only to be met with a counter. Sasha rolled past Lynch sneaking behind her and taking her down with a backstabber floated into a devastating cross-face. Becky tapped out.

Two down.

Next came a very ferocious Alicia Fox. Sasha was unsure exactly what Foxy was upset about, but then she remembered the bitch was crazy. Alicia threw off her fur coat and NO time was wasted she decked Sasha right in her jaw.

"You will not beat the Queen!" Alicia said delivering punches to Sasha's face. Sasha struggled out of the vicious grip putting her self between the ropes. "I'm the real Boss!"

"Back her off me!" Sasha ordered to the referee. The ref held Foxy back for a moment. Sasha took the advantage to charge at Fox giving her a taste of those punches she loved so much.

"Cry Foxy!" Sasha yelled in her ear, "Cry like the little cub you are!" she slammed Foxy's face into the mat repeatedly. Alicia pushed Sasha off charged her, screaming like a banshee; she Irish whipped her. Alicia caught Sasha in the middle of the ring transitioning right into to a scissors chop.

One...two...

Sasha barely kicked out. Foxy's eyes widen as she put her hands on her head. Sasha slithered behind Fox pulling her into a cross-armed surfboard. Foxy held on refusing to tap and Sasha showed her frustration by letting her face hit the mat hard and stepping on her neck.

Sasha pulled her by her hair to the corner of the ring tangling the Fox's body in the corner second rope.

Sasha leaped using the support of the top rope and stomped down onto Foxy's stomach. The crazy diva was now gargling a pint of blood. Sasha saved the diva some pain and put her right into the Bankstamp.

Alicia tapped out.

Three down.

Blue Pants ran down the ramp with a mere confidence. Sasha was very impressed with the fight she put up. The girl was rambunctious and a solid mat worker.

The Boss still prevailed taking her out with the Bankrupt.

The next diva to come out was pretty unexpected. The "Oh yea..." lyrics started as all red everything made her way down the ramp.

"Are you fucking kidding me?!" Sasha laughed hysterically.

Eva climbed into the ring pushed Sasha down. Sasha mugged Eva up and down before standing to her feet and slapping Eva silly.

She didn't even have to try to make her tap out.

Was that it? Sasha waited in the middle of the ring, hyped up beyond belief. Maybe there was some light at the end of tunnel. At least she could feel like this in the ring. She wanted more blood though, she wanted that flair to finish the night!

"Come on give me Charlotte!"

Instead of Charlotte's music hitting the arena it was the blaring scream seeped into rock music as the Diva's Champion stepped onto the ramp flashing her leather jacket and title. Paige had gloomy grin on her face as she strut down the ramp. Smiling to her former best friend; Paige held up the title to the crowd and placed it on the side.

Sasha's nerves riled up all over. Not once had she ever beaten Paige. It had gotten to the point where Sasha had gotten frustrated and stopped speaking with her along with the other lingering animosity between them. It wasn't anything like the hate between her and Charlotte though, it was just a misunderstanding between two best friends.

Maybe they'll work whatever BS boiled between them one day, but right now; it was go hard or go home.

Paige threw off her jacket standing across from Sasha she held out her hand to shake it, but Sasha glared at the friendly hand knocking it off to the side. Paige rolled her eyes as the two locked up pushing her into the corner, Paige gave a grave a stiff kick to Sasha's gut. Sasha responded with a right hook and whipped her to the opposite corner. Sasha ran at the brit with full force jolting her knees into her chest. Paige didn't go down so easy. The Divas Champion popped to her feet and tossed Sasha just beneath the first rope. Paige then delivered several knees to the Boss until she limped over. The pain had become more adamant and her stamina wasn't going to hold up; she needed to find a way to beat Paige and quick. The Boss then gave a few variations of kicks to the hold off the Divas Champion. Paige then came back at Sasha with a headscissors takedown placing Sasha exactly where she needed to be. Paige grabbed Sasha by the hair and planted her face into the mat.

"My house, forever!" Paige yelled at the crowd. She then tied Sasha's legs up with her own twisting her body around and entangling her arms.

The PTO was locked in.

Shit...shit...Sasha could feel the pain illuminate through her chest, back, and arms. The pain was beyond excruciating and the fact that she had been out there for so long. Her body just couldn't take it.

Just..don't...tap. She would pass out if she didn't; she wanted to win this match—she needed too.

"TAP!" Paige yelled applying even more pressure. Sasha's hand shook; the pain was becoming unbearable. Just as she was about to give in; a holy grail of a microphone came flying in the ring clocking Paige upside the head.

She dropped Sasha out of the PTO screaming to the outside of the ring. Sasha almost out of it turned to the side to see JoJo standing there with her arms crossed and an innocent glare in her eyes. "You little twat!" Paige yelled at JoJo who shrugged at the ref that didn't catch her. Sasha took the opportunity rolling Paige up for the three count.

One...two...three...!

The bell rang and finally Sasha had won Hunter's punishment. Sasha held her chest glancing over to JoJo who gave a quick wink before announcing her as the winner. "Your winner, The Boss, Sasha Banks!" Jojo enthused. Sasha gave a nod of approval to her friend. Paige on the other hand was beyond pissed. Drilling her fist into the mat; she ordered for her title to brought over to her. She held it high gleaming in Sasha's face.

"I'm somewhere you will never be!" Paige spat before storming out of the ring. "I'll always have _everything_ you want."

Sasha dusted off her shoulder as the referee raised her hand high.

* * *

**Hunter's Office**

The COO crossed his arms grimacing at the television screen as Sasha celebrated the win of the vigorous gauntlet Hunter put her in. He had to hand it to her; she was quite the fighter and even after the treacherous trials from the night before. Her mentality wasn't broken enough. The confrontation further proved that it was going to take a little more to break her completely; of course he could tell that she was already uneasy; her attack on Charlotte proved that her mentality was on the verge of being lost, but that wasn't enough.

Measures that didn't need to be met, sometimes were the best solutions to a leeching problem. Seth didn't finish the job, but no fret—Hunter needed him to focus on other things.

Oh, how he had someone else for Sasha. Someone she'd never expect. A perfect way to catch the prey.

The COO glanced over at the person standing near. "So, we have a deal?"

"I won't let you down," the English accent from the male assured.

**There's Chapter 8 y'all! Thank you for being patient and don't forget to review if you have a moment! Also don't forget to check out the connecting stories! You won't regret it!**

**Pride by RontheRonin Starring Roman Reigns/AJ Lee(the core story)**

**Envy by MellyxBrooks Starring the Miz/Summer/Maryse/Ziggler**

**Revenge by XxPikaSixJoyxX Starring Seth Rollins and Paige**

**Insanity by Cody'sFavoritexgirl Starring Dean Ambrose and Emma**

**All stories are connected!**

**Also if you're into the Walking Dead a great author to check out is turtlelovenotes !**

**BACI 3 3**


	9. Friend or Foe?

**Chapter 9**

Focus.

That word could bind to the back of your mind and not mean a damn thing—unlike memories. They held onto your hand, whispered in your, and even seeped beneath your skin. You could only distract yourself so long before they started leeching again.

Sasha stood in the middle of the practice ring glancing from corner to corner, everything had slowed down. Maybe it was because for the second night in a row she had gotten no sleep; which was gravely biting her on the ass. She laced up her black Pumas and pulled her hair back into a messy bun. After a few laps around the ring she was able to round up a little adrenaline, hopefully it would be enough to get through the day. It wasn't like she could just skip a day just for sleep. Plus she was perfectly content with her every day motivational thoughts—if you didn't practice you became rusty and being just that wouldn't get you on the main roster.

Sasha played with the power ropes for awhile before eyeballing an angry Becky Lynch who stormed into the facility. It was as if a lightning bolt had struck through the gym as everyone stopped simultaneously staring at a raging Lynch who charged at the NXT Women's Champion.

The Irish born Diva clocked Charlotte so hard that she flew a few feet into the stack of workout balls and barbells-Sasha instantly formed a glowing grin on her face. Lynch then spat a few curse words in her native language before leaving the place, slamming the door behind her, and nearly almost shattering the glass in the process.

No surprise, obviously Charlotte had been pissing off more than just her these days, Sasha conjured up that easy theory. The Boss whipped around running to the locker room; she grabbed her duffle bag and iPhone 6.

Well wasn't it the perfect time to make allies in all the chaos?

It probably wasn't the best time to be asking for a buddy, but it was worth a try.

As much as Sasha wanted to leave all the drama behind and just wrestle—the fight in her couldn't resist.

Plus Trips wasn't going to let her at peace until she "remembered" that CM Punk attacked her.

There was no chance in hell she was going to conform to anything the Authority threw her way.

Sasha ran into the parking lot, catching up with the Delty Diva who was still steaming at the earlier shenanigans. She took a swift step back from Lynch who was ready to swing at any and everyone.

"Whoa fall back!" Sasha said holding up her hands in defense, "Easy Becky I'm not here to steal your lucky charms Becky. I'm here to talk."

Becky scoffed slamming her car door closed, "And what makes you think I'm in the mood for talking?" she crossed her arms glowering her eyes at Sasha.

"Well, you haven't brogue kicked me yet, so maybe I have a minute!" Sasha backed away a little, Becky gave a slight nod.

"Obviously Charlotte's made your life hell," Sasha said looking at her surroundings, "putting her in her place is something I'm good at—"

"I don't need anyone to fight my battles," Becky said shaking her head.

"I'm not offering to fight for you I asking if you want a reliable ally."

"And what exactly is the catch, Sasha?" The impatience flared on Becky's expression.

"With the hell I'm in right now, I'd be stupid to go at it alone. Remember what I told you last week about letting people walk over you?"

"Yeah I remember, and I took that advice. So now you're asking me to be your lackey to have your back?"

"I'm not looking for a lackey, I'm looking for an ally," Sasha said raging through the betrayal from the past few days.

"Give me a good reason why I should have your back,"

"Like I said before," Sasha said crossing her arms, "you need to do whatever it takes to get to the top, but that's never going to happen with the Authority breaking every chance we get and that includes Charlotte."

Becky wading through her thoughts proved that Sasha was getting through to her. Hopefully those thoughts would bring her to the conclusion in favor.

**Friday night Smackdown**

Sasha paced backstage feeling a slight chill in the backstage area. Being in Authority territory was never a good feeling and nowadays that was often. Sasha watched the monitor waiting for the next match to be announced. To her surprise or dismay rather; a very healthy Chris Jericho appeared from behind the curtain. She wasn't sure if she'd gone completely crazy. Did she not see Jericho get shot the other night at the hotel? Or was he back as a ghost to haunt her.

Haha.

No...

"You're okay..." Sasha said shaking her head, "how did you-"

"Bulletproof vests are handy when dealing with an itching psychopath," Jericho said tapping his chest. "How about you? Have you recovered from psycho Seth?"

"I'm here," she shrugged, "good to know you're not six feet under," her expression grew sullen.

"Well I thought you would be a little more appreciative-"

"Thank you," Sasha cut him off, "I'm sorry if I seem a little short patience, but I really don't want to recall."

"What are you going to do? Prance around like the Authority isn't watching your every move?"

"I can handle them," Sasha held her chin up, "I'll be fine."

"Your bluff won't hold up long, you know every chance they get they'll attack," Jericho said shaking his head.

"It will because it's not a bluff," Sasha fired, "do me a favor and don't go letting the world know I was almost murdered by my psychopathic ex-boyfriend," Sasha turned away from Chris rolling her eyes; she quickly went down the hall only to be stopped by a very curious Roman Reigns gazing at her. "Hey, Sasha.." he started, but Sasha didn't hesitate to dodge the situation all together. She wanted nothing to do with him. "Hi," she said coldly trying to get by him. Apparently he was in the mood for a chat, he gently place his hand on her arm.

"Leave me alone," she said storming by him almost feeling a little bad, but the feeling would soon disappear. Feelings in this business always got you in trouble Sure, she knew that from the start, so why did she let them form in the first place.

Sasha reached into her pocket and read the text message that buzzed through her inbox.

I think you may be right. When do we start?

-DeltyDiva

Sasha nodded to herself. Looks like she may have an ally after all.

* * *

JoJo's eyes spazed opened. Maybe it was because she was sensitive to any light when sleeping, but the unflattering one of the high contrasted computer screen grabbed her right out of a peaceful sleep. Whatever Sami had been working on must have been more important than sleep or he had a bad case of insomnia. Sami spun out of the desk chair going straight into the bathroom. The shower water started. JoJo sat up on the black futon-sofa-her curious eyes glued to the screen as they were angry for sleep. What was he doing anyway? She slid into the desk chair almost slipping off of it. She tapped the touch pad bring up a blue background with a few minimized screens.

Maybe she shouldn't look.

JoJo lingered over the mini screens wondering what in the hell was she doing anyway? It wasn't her business.

She clicked open one of the screens that happened to be a PDF document full of emails?

She shook her head. Okay it was time to go back to sleep. Being nosy did her no justice at all anyway. She yawned stretching back into the chair when her eyes caught a familiar name rounding within the file.

Sasha Banks

JoJo leaned back into the screen and scrolled through the document until she reached the top. All of the names of recipients were those of the Authority. JoJo knew that whatever Sasha was into had to do with the Authority making her life as complex as ever. Here she was reading a file that consisted of various plans, targets, and even..

JoJo's eyes widened at the text she read. She read it five-times over to be sure she was putting it together correctly.

She knew who Sasha's attacker was.

The running water stopped.

JoJo minimized the file and hopped back onto the futon laying with her back turned from the computer.

What the hell was Sami doing with those e-mails? She had no idea, but she did know that she was going to have a chat with Sasha the next day.

* * *

Sami entered the Performance center with a wary eye at side. It came to no surprise that around the WWE lately the Authority had been out for power taking down any and everyone who stood in their way. CM Punk of all people was incarcerated and waiting for trial for an attempted murder and the Authority had a leash that extended throughout the roster and the chaos had only been getting worse. Sami doing some research of his own was an extremely dangerous risk. At least he'd be putting his computer programming degree to good use. Taking out the small USB, he popped it into the desktop. All the information that would be most of this to a rest was encrypted into the thing.

"If you would put that attention where is belongs, then maybe you wouldn't have such a hard time becoming NXT champion." Sami was surprised to see a tainted Adrian Neville linger at the door. The last few weeks he hadn't been the friend he expected him to be.

"I think that gold has finally gotten to your head," Sami responded slipping the USB back into his pocket.

"Common sense is more like it," Adrian babbled through his thick accent. "you better hope you're snooping around on social media will help you."

"I have no idea what you're talking about Neville," Sami said, playing off the obvious as his friend stared him down. Neville and Zayn had travelled the world together as top level indy wrestlers for a number of years, and over that timespan the two had gotten to know each other very well. So Neville could tell when Sami was lying or up to something.

"You sure about that?" Adrian pressed, "because it looks like you're getting yourself into hot water. As your friend Sami, I highly recommend that you stop your campaign for vengeance because things could happen to you, and I mean worse than losing to me on your road to redemption."

Sami gritted his teeth, turning his attention back to Adrian and his NXT Championship. "Is there something you wanna tell me? Or does this run deeper than the championship that rests on your shoulder?" he retorted, as Adrian put his hands up in self defense. "Hey, I'm just looking out for you my friend, regardless of whether this title comes between us or not. Now can you just accept my help?"

Sami pondered the thought of Adrian helping out in his crusade against the Authority. Could he really trust his longtime friend? He had been acting very differently recently, thanks to that championship. Perhaps he could feel that the title was starting to slip from his grasp and he was sinking to new lows and depths to do whatever he could to retain his title.

Still, Adrian was his best friend and Sami couldn't hold that kind of grudge against him. He would tell him eventually, just not right now. "Yeah, I could use your help old friend. But...I can't give you any information until I get all the facts I need first. Once we get what we need, then we can wage war against the Authority, and save the good name that was WWE," Sami said, offering out his hand for a handshake and show of respect.

Adrian hesitated at first, but a weary smile crossed the Brit's face and he nodded his head. "Alright Sami, you've got a deal, but as soon as you get everything, you come and find me and we'll go finish this entire thing for good," he commented, shaking Sami's hand. "And when you finally think you're ready and able to win the big one," he retorted, patting the golden NXT belt on his shoulder, " you let me know and we can make it happen,"

"Alright thanks, I'll see you around later today Adrian," Sami said, walking past Adrian Neville and bumping his shoulder against his in what seemed like an intentional manner, as he headed to the back to go talk to JoJo about whatever it was Adrian could care less about.

The Brit grinned to himself as he walked backstage to his locker room, Sami's USB drive sitting directly in the palm of his hand. All of the Authority's plans, right here on this little device, and no one even knew it.

* * *

Sasha made her way down the alley way with Becky at her side. They were using their spare time to pick up a few things from the Whole Foods market close by-and no better place to conjure up a plan than in an organic grocery store. Before getting by the long dirt street; they were rudely swifted by a frantic lady grimacing while pushing her shopping cart forcefully by. Becky nudged her on the side quickly grabbing her attention.

"Dean and Roman are literally standing a few feet behind us," she lowered her voice.

"What?" Sasha said looking over Becky's shoulder. The Lunatic Fringe was speaking fast, but clear and he was indeed talking to Roman Reigns. Since Smackdown Roman had gone missing and had been injured. No one knew how or what went down-no one had seen him since. Sasha's ears perched as the words "evidence" and "Rays Stadium" spewed from Dean's mouth. Probably the best thing she ever heard the psycho say.

"Remember when I said we may get into a little trouble in this new alliance we have?" Sasha turned to Becky nodding. "I think today will be the start of it all."

"Do I get to punch someone?" Becky asked glancing back the former Shield members.

"Plenty, we need to focus on getting whatever evidence is floating around before they do." Sasha hid behind Becky as Dean and Roman walked past them into the parking lot with Roman making brief eye contact with Sasha. Quickly, the Boss hid behind her rather large powerhouse of an ally Becky. Once they drove away. Sasha hopped into the driver's seat as Becky was right behind her. She stepped on the gas taking a different route.

Hitting one-hundred in Tampa traffic was almost impossible-Sasha was determined. Getting there and grabbing the evidence as quickly as possible was ideal, but that never seemed to workout lately. Someones fancy Prius cutting her off made it that much harder. After five senseless minutes of honking her horn; she finally pulled into the Rays Stadium parking lot.

A little unsettling because shots were being fired and people were flying down. One person in particular, The loud sound of a machine gun aimed at David Otunga as he reached into his brief case, but never made far. He hit the ground as the blood sprayed from his body like a sprinkler.

A baseball game to remember indeed.

**Thank you for being patient and don't forget to review if you have a moment! Also don't forget to check out the connecting stories! You won't regret it!**

**Pride by RontheRonin**

**Envy by MellyxBrooks**

**Revenge by XxPikasixjoyxX**

**Insanity by Cody'sfavoritexgirl**


	10. Tell No One

**Chapter 10**

**Just remind you! This Chapter is continuing from RonTheRonin's last chapter 23. If not there will be some serious confusion! Thanks for all the feedback and enjoy!**

The real fun was raging inside the Rays' Stadium. Blood was shed, debris was flying and bodies were piling up. Sasha coughed as the particles from the crushed gravel seeped into her sinuses; Roman knocked as much of it out of the way giving them some air to breathe in the dugout. Sasha again was in an interesting situation that consisted of explosives and rapid sniping. Scattered screams echoed from the disaster outside and once again Roman had gotten Sasha out of harms way. Why she didn't know because less than a minute ago she had threatened to gun down him and his crazy ass friend for taking her tapes. Epic failure now. Shit had blown up and the tapes were destroyed. Now she had to find another way to get the information she loathed for.

After getting the hell out of this dugout first.

"Are you an idiot?" Sasha said pulling gravel out of her hair.

Roman cursed beneath his breath while trying to force the door open. "I need to get out there," he said pushing the door with all his strength. "People are hurt."

"How about saving yourself first?" Sasha glared at Roman with dry eyes, "you don't always need to be the hero, you know."

"I would be incredibly selfish if I didn't," he said driving his fist into the door, "by the way thanks for your erratic decision to take out me and Dean, very nice of you."

"Are you going to superman punch us out of here or something?" Sasha asked ignoring Romans' brief reminisce.

"They're really starting to get to you aren't they?" Roman knocked more debris out their path, "I thought you were better than that."

"I may not do things the way you do, but I find a way to solve the problem," Sasha rolled her eyes, "and remember Reigns, you only know things about me, but you don't me."

"I know that Seth's turned you into an neurotic insecure mess."

Sasha laughed shaking her head. "Your attempt at picking me is incredibly sad, now please get us out of here."

"Actually, how about I get the hell out of here and leave you to crumble under this debris? Since you're already fragile as it is," Roman suggested.

"You're hurting my feelings," Sasha said sardonically, but giving Roman wonder eyes just in case he really decided to leave her ass in this hole.

"You really are the Queen of shade," Roman cleared the remaining debris that opened the path outside.

"Finally," Sasha said pushing by Roman and climbing out of the dugout. Sasha's eyes widened to the damage around the field. Fire fighters and EMT's were everywhere clearing the area. Otunga's covered body was being hiked onto the stretcher. From afar Sasha could make out the COO's steaming ears-almost in tears as he hovered over his wife and Vince.

She almost felt sorry for him.

Almost.

"And of all the tragedy, you wonder why I try to help you?" Roman stepped behind her.

"I look forward to never seeing you again," Sasha gave the shade Roman had asked for. She knew she would see him regardless, but she could always tune him out and pretend that he wasn't there.

"Sasha!" Becky caught their attention, Sasha went towards her new ally without saying another word to Reigns. "We need to go," Becky continued, "I just got a call from JoJo-serious shit."

The duo headed back to the parking lot and quickly left the the venue. Sasha knocked the remaining debris out of her hair as they sped down the highway.

"What..." Sasha glanced over to Becky who was dusting off a loaded gun, "where the hell did you get that?"

"Swiped it from a cop while you were in the dugout," Becky replied shrugging, "and considering what just went down we're probably about to face the wrath of something bigger than just the Authority."

"Great," Sasha said shaking her head, "hopefully whatever JoJo is about to spill will jump us one step ahead."

"You trust her?" Becky said raising a brow.

Sasha nodded with no hesitation. "Despite me having very few people on that list, I do, she's never wronged me."

Exiting the highway, they turned into a side street passing by milky white condos that shaded beneath the clouds as nightfall sneaked up on them. They followed the coordinates JoJo sent to them turning up into a torn neighborhood with molded buildings and broken sidewalks. Sasha parked behind an abandoned apartment complex-right next to what seemed to be JoJo's sedan . The area was completely dead, not even a stray animal was lurking. Up above JoJo was standing in a window a few stories up; she signaled a look down to them-they quickly headed into the building and took the stairs.

* * *

JoJo took a deep breath opening the door for Sasha and Becky. Usually she didn't want to get involved in anything so corrupt, but she wanted to help her friend. Sasha getting this information could relieve her from whatever the Authority had wrapped her in; hopefully before the damage was done, but from the looks of it; it already taken effect.

"Sorry if it took us a bit," Sasha said crossing her arms, "we got caught in a shootout."

JoJo gave a slight nod, knowing all too well that her friend meant that in the most literal terms. "Tampa news is blowing up," JoJo said shaking her head. "What the hell is all of this for..?"

"The only thing I can tell you is power, JoJo," Sasha answered, "It needs to end."

"Well hopefully what I'm about to tell you will help with that," JoJo said feeling a slight betrayal in her gut. She looked at the information without saying anything to Sami and that was eating at her the most. Sasha's eyes gleamed for the information

"Last night...I stumbled upon some information linking the Authority and others on Sami's USB," she cleared her throat, "I didn't have time to read it all before-Sami returned, but I saw enough to know it has a lot of leverage."

"Sami has all of this?" Sasha said shocked, "how in the hell? Why?"

"I don't know," JoJo hopped onto the old kitchen counter, "I knew he had been so focused on something lately, but I didn't know what…"

"I need that USB," Sasha said almost jumping out of her skin, "the tapes are gone, but this is even better."

JoJo sank into herself a little, hearing her friend's jeering tone.

"Were you able to get it?"

"I-I couldn't," JoJo looked to the ground hating the disappointment in her tone.

Sasha to her surprise was calm nodded slightly. "Don't worry about it, I"ll find a way to get it ," she said with confidence glancing over to Becky who nodded in agreement. "We're the only ones who knows he has it-there's no holding us back now."

JoJo nodded feeling some relief, but not enough. "I don't know if he'll just hand it to you that easy, girl." JoJo said in a low tone.

"I wouldn't expect him to," Sasha crossed her arms, "but we have persuasion on our side," Sasha looked as if she was plotting something.

"Sami isn't easily persuaded," JoJo said raising a brow, " he'll hunt you down before you even get a word in about why you need the USB."

"Not if we shoot him first." Sasha's glare turned cold and all of a sudden JoJo didn't see the warm glow from her friend anymore.

"You...you're not meaning literally…" JoJo hopped down from the counter; her stomach fell into a wave. "Sasha, don't please…"

"If he doesn't cooperate, then I may have to," Sasha said closing her eyes, "I need that evidence!"

JoJo was almost too choked for words. "I know you do...and I know it's going help you, but Sami doesn't need to get hurt-he's probably just trying to help."

Sasha shook her head. "And every time someone has tried to help me; it's sent me to a dead end, I'm not settling for anyone else's plan except for my own."

"So when Roman helped you it left you at a dead end? " Jojo shook her head at her friend, "You seem very alive and well to me because of him," she said.

"You're playing games now, JoJo?" Sasha snapped, "you're suppose to support me."

"I do…" JoJo looked down to the cracked tile floor, "but why like this? You're not evil…"

"Aren't I?" Sasha squeezed her fist together, "You can't fight evil with hope or trust. You either get even or get better."

"Being the better evil is not going to solve anything." JoJo pleaded, "please..not like this."

Jojo watched as her friend lingered in her thoughts. What was wrong with her? Brash and bold was her best friend; but evil and selfish? Her personality shifted overnight.

"Fine," Sasha said making Jojo sigh in relief, "I promise I won't hurt him."

Jojo automatically embraced her friend thanking her.

"However, with anyone else, I can't promise you the same," Sasha glanced at her phone, "Do yourself a favor and stay away from this mess."

* * *

Sasha returned home just as the sun disappeared. So it was obvious to say that getting the evidence she needed from the stadium didn't quite work out, but thanks to her good friend JoJo's looking out she had another alternative to get out of this mess for good. Sasha yawned as she walked into her apartment, fed her cat, and took a quick shower; she threw on some flannel lounging pants and a NXT tank top Though she hadn't slept in nearly two days; she didn't feel tired at all. Maybe she was having the adverse effect from lack of sleep. Either way she was going to team up with two Benadryl and a bottle of cinnamon smirnoff.

It took her a moment to process everything that had went down today.

There were many things in life as human being that were completely frowned upon.

And god damn she was feeling as if she becoming all of those things.

Shit was really fucked up; and now so was she.

What else was she suppose to do? Sit around and wait for things to be good again? Sure she understood that Reigns wanted to help her, but him being too focused on playing hero kept him from seeing the bigger picture. She'd put her trust in too many people and it left her nowhere. Taking things into her own control was the only way-even if it meant she had to make regretful fucking decisions.

It was the only way to survive.

It didn't matter. She may be selfish now, but in the long run people would be thanking her, but right now she was ready to call it a night. Just as she dropped on to the couch to get comfortable, there was repeated, loud rap at the door. She let out a long sigh before taking a swing of the smirnoff. Like hell she was going to answer her door with glory. It was still hot from all the chaos and honestly she wouldn't be surprised if someone was already on the bounty for her.

She went to the door anyway and glanced through the peephole hoping that her eye wouldn't get shot out the socket—and was a little unsettled to see Hugo Knox standing outside looking like a statue. Sasha reluctantly opened the door.

To say that Bill DeMott was just like a hot-headed military drill instructor would be an understatement of the century. This guy was the head trainer at the WWE Performance Center and didn't take any crap from anybody, whether you were an experienced wrestler with 10 years of experience on the indies, or if you were some hotshot college athlete from the gridiron just transferring in. Everybody was on the same level in DeMott's eyes, and he would treat them as such. Unfortunately for them, he didn't exactly treat them well.

Where others called it rash and rigorous unfair training, he called it tough love, saying that people that crumbled under the pressure and under his training were nothing more than 'soft, melted cookies' and had no business being in a wrestling ring. His punishments weren't exactly crowd pleasers either. Once, when Angelo Dawkins was tardy by 2 minutes to a mandatory meeting, DeMott made Angelo run the ropes for two straight hours, and by the time he had finished, Angelo had blisters all over his arms and back. He was never late again after that.

There were times when DeMott would call in everybody for a mandatory meeting on a Sunday, the one day all NXT stars had off during the week, to the dismay of many. And today was one of those days for the NXT roster unfortunately. All of the wrestlers pulled up to the Performance Center in their cars, some carpooling with others. The NXT champion Adrian Neville was the last to arrive, with the USB drive still in his pocket for some odd reason. He walked into the building and took a seat next to JoJo, who had Sami Zayn on her right.

Bill DeMott studied all of his wrestlers, making sure everybody was there. Neville, Zayn, the Ascension, Kalisto, Sin Cara, the Vaudevillains, Becky Lynch, Alexa Bliss, Charlotte, and even the new guys Hideo Itami, Finn Balor, and Kevin Owens had shown up. "Is that everybody? I think everybody's all here now," DeMott said, but Charlotte raised her hand.

"All due respect sir, but I don't think Sasha Banks is here. That, or after all that's recently happened, she's decided not to show her face-" Charlotte stated but the intense trainer waived her off. "With all due respect Charlotte, nobody likes a fucking snitch so shut the hell up," DeMott stated, but then added, "when I see her again though, if she wants to keep her title shot for the next NXT special she's gonna be running those damn ropes...a hell of a lot."

A small smug smile made its way onto the second generation Flair's face as DeMott refocused his attention on everybody else. "Alright now everybody listen up! Now as you know, the founder of the greatest wrestling company in the world is dead. Vince McMahon has been taken from us and is now gone forever, but the blood, sweat, and tears he put into this business still flow strong and will continue to flow through every last one of you until the end of your careers!" DeMott shouted, pacing back and forth.

"It's a damn shame what happened to Hunter and Stephanie, taking an unborn child from this world," DeMott said, fixating his gaze on the masked Sin Cara, not fazing the luchador in the slightest. "It's one of the worst things a parent has to endure, which brings to my next point. I have information from reliable sources stating to me that one of you is responsible for playing a part in recent events," he continued.

"Can you just tell us already and get to the point?" Tyler Breeze complained, checking his hair on the camera of his iPhone 6. Enraged, the trainer slapped the fucking phone from out of Tyler's grasp and it went flying into the hand of one Bull Dempsey, who crushed it with a intimidating look on his face. DeMott turned his attention back to Breeze, lifting him up by the collar of his shirt, before tossing him into the Vaudevillains. "I'm going find out exactly which one of you rats has been leaking information from the Authority and then I'm going to surgically remove your head from your shoulders with my bare fucking hands!"

As DeMott turned his attention to Tyson Kidd, he glared. "I'm think I'm gonna start with you Kidd, you cat loving freak," he declared, but his intentions were cut off when the most unexpected of unexpected guests appeared through the doors

WWE World Heavyweight Champion Brock Lesnar.

"I'm Brock Lesnar. One of you has got something that belongs to my friend, and I'm here to take it back," Brock said, rolling his shoulders back and forth ready for some action. DeMott looked at the Beast as if he were crazy and threw a water bottle at him. "Get your ass out of here! You know damn well you're not welcome here!" Brock only grinned as he picked up the water bottle and finished what was left of it.

"I was hoping one of you would be dumb enough to do that. Now I'm gonna tear this place apart until I find what I'm looking for," Brock said, and right after that, he picked up a sandbag and threw it at Bill DeMott, who was sent flying through a wall and didn't get back up. "I'm an ass kicker!" Brock screamed, unleashing his battle cry.

The Ascension, the most dominant tag team down in NXT went at Lesnar first, attempting their tag team finisher Fall of Man, but instead Brock's fist connected with Konnor's face, sending him flying into a pile of folding chairs. His foot crushed Viktor's head into the ground, stomping it multiple times into the ground, until multiple gash wounds opened up in his head. Brock grabbed him and threw him outside into the parking lot.

Konnor tried to come back at Brock with another assault, but was met with a groin shot for his efforts. Not satisfied with Konnor's pain, Brock proceeded to deliver multiple nut shots to Konnor until he finally saw streams of hot tears emerge from his enemy's eyes and a sick, cruel smile crossed Brock's face. "You're a bitch. Quit wearing eyeliner," he stated.

As Brock began to make his way over to the lockers, the tag team champions, the Lucha Dragons came flying at Brock from one of the performance center rings, successfully knocking him down on his back for a grand total of 3 seconds. The World champion screamed. picking up one of the weight bars, and swinging in barbaric fashion, succeeded in knocking Sin Cara's head in nearly the other direction as he fell to the ground, lifeless.

Brock turned his attention to Kalisto and a snare elicited an unhappy response. "You remind me of Rey Mysterio. I hated that guy," Brock said as he swung ferociously at Kalisto unable to land a single blow on the rapidly fast luchador. Pissed off at his high flying foe, Brock took a couple of mats and started dusting them everywhere, making it extremely hard to breathe and see for Kalisto, especially in the mask. And by the time dust cleared, he was being speared by the Beast. Lifting him up, Brock bear-hugged Kalisto until with one final squeeze, he seemingly broke the tag champion's spine, and tossed him to the ground.

"You guys could make this a lot easier on yourselves! Just give me what I came for and I can go! Don't make me do something you'll regret!" Brock shouted, but the bold NXT Women's Champion delivered a smack to the face of Brock. He simply shook his head at her, and without a moment's hesitation, delivered an F-5 to Charlotte onto the steel steps, busting her open. "I'm not above hitting women. You should see what I did to Stephanie back in the day. And your old man," Brock cockily shrugged before coming face to face with Bull Dempsey.

"Who the hell do you think you are?" Bull roared, attempting to ram his head into the chest of Lesnar, but he caught and held his head in a headlock before pulling out a screwdriver. "I was always quite the handyman," he said before driving it straight into the forehead of Bull Dempsey, carving his initials with the tool of destruction as the agonizing cries from Bull were music to Brock's ears. He left the screwdriver in Bull's open wound so that he could feel the burn.

"You got anything you wanna say new guys?" Brock said, looking towards Hideo Itami, Finn Balor, and Kevin Owens. The three of them glared at the Beast, but didn't so much as move a muscle. "You guys would be wise not to get involved in something you don't know shit about," Brock warned.

"The only pile of shit I see here is our crappy world champion," Owens said, before walking out of the arena. "This was a waste of time to come here tonight."

"You guys should join him; I wouldn't wanna be here and get my ass kicked by Brock Lesnar either," Brock warned, and while Hideo tried to move forward to attack Brock, Finn held him back. "Not here, not now," he hissed quietly. Hideo calmed himself down and Brock allowed the duo to exit the Performance Center.

"The rest of you aren't going anywhere until I get what I'm looking for!" Brock yelled. DeMott was starting to awaken, but one swift kick from Brock to his head knocked out the head trainer for good. Brock started to rip the equipment apart, tearing locker doors off, and tearing the ring ropes off.

Enzo and Kass made their best attempt to try and stop Brock, but he tangled both of their throats in the ring ropes and choked them out. Carmella wisely backed down and elected to leave before Brock elected to put a hand on her as well. "There's not very many of you left around here, and I want my USB drive!" Brock yelled. JoJo quickly darted a look to Sami, nervous as hell at the moment.

"Sami, give him the drive," JoJo whispered with haste, causing Sami to raise his eyebrows in surprising fashion. "Not another word JoJo. We'll talk about this later," Sami hushed. Adrian looked on in surprise well. "Sami, we have to give him the drive!" Adrian said in a hushed whisper as they watched Brock literally rip out the hair of Tyler Breeze.

Sami reluctantly shook his head, digging in his pockets for the drive. "I can't believe you two know about this," he said, as if his trust had been betrayed. "Shit, it's not in my pocket. I thought I had it," Sami thought, but Adrian shook his head. "Now you're gonna get us all killed."

Brock had just finished breaking the arms of the Vaudevillains with his Kimura Lock, and turned his attention to Bayley, who actually had the nerve to stand up to Brock Lesnar, even if she was shivering in complete fear. "Well isn't this cute? Hey little girl, get out my fucking way before you get hurt," Brock warned. Bayley stood her ground, still shivering. "N-no."

Brock studied the barely defiant diva, before laughing his ass off. "Did you just piss yourself?" Brock laughed some more before his face became serious. "Drop your pants now," he commanded. When she refused, Brock stomped the ground and screamed in her face, she quickly complied and dropped her pants, bottoms and all. And in literal glistening glory, Bayley had indeed wet herself.

Brock pulled out his phone and quickly snapshotted a picture. "You're gonna be the laughing stock of the Internet, now," he said. "Now get out of my way," Brock said, shoving her aside and zoning in on Sami, JoJo, and Neville. "Well you three are the only ones left, so let's do this already! Hand over the fucking drive!" Brock screamed.

Sami stepped in front of JoJo masking her from danger. Adrian doing the same stood by Sami facing the last wrath of one Brock Lesnar.

Brock scanning the both of them noticed their shielding to JoJo. He studied them like simple prey. Sami and Adrian kept their poker gazes in sight. JoJo looking to the floor teary eyed and frightened held on to Sami tight; Adrian glanced over with a bit dismay. "JoJo, run," Sami demanded before he and Adrian both quickly grazed attacked on Lesnar. Lesnar monstered back at them taking out Adrian first.

JoJo hesitated, running towards the door and pushing outside to the parking lot. She gasped catching her breath as her heart dropped onto the ground. She couldn't just leave Sami and Adrian or anyone else in there.

She searched for anything near by-finding a crow bar near by she scooped up and headed back towards the center.

When she opened the door she was too late. Brock had taken out Sami; leaving him barely able to move. JoJo swung the bar at Lesnar, but Lesnar caught it with one hand channeling his strength and pulling her and it towards him. JoJo stumbled to the ground, but Brock caught her by her long curly locks, raising her up to his face and inhaling the scent of her hair

"When someone doesn't give me what I want, I take something of theirs until they comply," Brock gritted through his sadistic smile. JoJo struggled to get out of his grip, but Brock delivered a vicious headbut knocking her unconcious.

"Poor, innocent, girl." Brock screeched, hiking JoJo over his shoulder carrying her out of the center.

Barely able to move a muscle; the last thing Sami heard was a car door close, speeding off into the night.

Thanks for reading! And Hey! Check out the connecting stories you won't regret it!

**Pride by RontheRonin**

**Envy by MellyxBrooks**

**Revenge by XxPikasixjoyxX**

**Insanity by Cody'sfavoritexgirl**

**Baci! 3 3**


	11. Love and War

**Chapter 11**

**All characters are WWE copyrighted. I own nothing.**

_Hope in reality is the worst of all evils because it prolongs the torments of man._

_-Friedrich Nietzsche_

Hugo Knox spent the last hour and a half talking about his futbol career in Europe or something like that, Sasha didn't really know. Maybe it was because she was scrolling through her Tumblr feed trying to make out what the crazy fans were saying, but the alcohol was probably making her exaggerate things. Or maybe the Benadryl was about to make her crash, but either way Hugo's words made it no where near her ears.

"So, that's how I ended up here," he finished his very long winded story. Sasha gave a stiff smile.

"Amazing," she said flatly looking at him—not that he was bad looking, in fact he was very attractive, but even a drunk her wouldn't have a careless hook-up—not that she could anyway because as soon she got up the room was spinning.

And she was probably going pass out in about thirty seconds.

"Well I um," Sasha stood to her bare feet trying to keep her balance, "have a lonnng day later so you should probably go play soccer or something," she said bursting into laughter.

Hugo widened his eyes a bit. "You sure? I can stay if you need—" Hugo was cut off by what Sasha thought was herself blacking out to the ground; fortunately it was Hugo who actually hit the floor, after one Becky Lynch clocked him upside the head.

With a tire iron?

"Oh no! Not on my new carpet!" Sasha frowned almost falling to the floor again, "you're such a bitch sometimes Becky."

"Come on buddy, its bedtime," Becky said shaking her head, "I'll remove the dreamy soccer player."

Sasha grabbed onto Becky's arm as her friend helped her to her bed where her body fell limp into an instant crash.

The next morning Sasha woke up to Nala scratching at her feet. Great alarm clock. She rolled out of bed checking her phone- five-am. Time to to head down to the Performance center for another day on the grind. Foggy and drained she shrugged; there was a lot she needed to get done. [R] Evolution was in a couple of days and with all the drama she had almost disregarded that it was about to be her time to shine. That title belonged to her. No hold backs and more importantly, no distractions.

She would plan her due for that drive soon; with the Authority out of power, at least she had some free time to focus on what engrossed her from that missed town is Massachusetts.

Checking her email, she noticed an alert from Bill Demott stating that everyone needed to report to a meeting, however that was last night.

Shit.

It was a hit or miss with on call meetings, but usually Demott wouldn't call for one unless it was necessary. She sighed heavily and mentally prepared for the chewing out she was going to get the moment she stepped foot into that center. After brewing up some coffee, the Boss threw on some yoga pants and a vintage Spider-man shirt. Before she was out the door she grabbed her navy hoodie and left a bowl of food out for the cat.

When she arrived to the performance center she did some cardio; luckily she was able to make it through that smoothly on an empty stomach. When heading over to weights more than a few broken dumbbells scattered around the ground, along with large weights severed into pieces.

Someone had a rough night.

Sasha turned her attention to the side door as it creaked open and a very faded and taped up Angelo Dawkins limped into the room. "What the hell happened to you?" Sasha said dropping a piece of the demolished dumb bell. Angelo rubbed the back of his head.

"Damn, you missed some ill shit last night," he said croaking out the words; he winced while holding his ribs.

"Were you cage fighting with Bull Dempsey again?" Sasha said completely clueless of what went down at the Demott meeting.

"More like Brock Lesnar tore through all of us, literally."

"What the hell would Brock Lesnar want with the NXT roster?" Sasha grimaced at the weight rope...that was also broken.

"All I know is, he wanted some information, no one spoke up, but-"

"I'd really rather not know the grimy details," Sasha coldly cut him off, "I've had enough of that for the last twenty-four hours."

"But really though, I think you should know yo girl got caught in the mix," Angelo had her attention now; the immediate thought trembled into her head like a pound of sand. "JoJo…"

"Yeah, right after he destroy Zayn and Neville," Angelo seemed to flash the events in his mind as he broke into a nervous sweat, "no one's seen her since."

"What the actual fuck?!" Sasha cursed under her breath fuming while inadvertently elbowing Angelo in the ribs. Telling JoJo to steer clear from this mess was no good, it was inevitable that someway another person was added into the mix with their own motive. Now Sasha needed to help her friend before Brock decided it his patience had run low. But where the hell would she start?

"So all of you are just waiting for her to magically appear?" Sasha kicked a few items out of her path.

What if it was already too late?

"Look, relax...the police have been called.."

"Forty-eight hours!" Sasha interrupted the bullshit she knew Angelo was about to feed her, "they won't look for her until forty-eight fucking hours after she went missing, that's enough time for Brock or whoever to decide this is her last day breathing!"

Sasha squeezed her and fist together hoping the beat of her heart would slow down, she inhaled hard before wiping her hands clean. She grabbed her duffel and stepped outside the performance center as more of her colleagues arrived; some in dismay from the night before and others who were too new to even know what transpired.

She stood there with her arms crossed, waiting for Zayn and Neville to show their faces, but neither of them had come forth.

Dialing out her phone she called Sami's cell getting an answer before the line rang in.

"I can't find her...," Sami said in a great distress, knowing that Sasha had gotten the memo. Sasha wanted to call him every name in the book.

"Why didn't you just give him the damn usb?!" Sasha seethed, echoing through the parking lot. Alexa Bliss and Bayley both jumped as her raging voice pierced their ears.

"I don't have it, Sasha!" Sami retorted with his own frustration. Sasha wanted to launch her phone. "Someone got their hands on it long before last night," Sami explained on the other end as he hauled through traffic.

"You idiots couldn't just protect her," her brows knitted in a frown, "god, fourteen of you and NOT ONE OF YOU COULD FUCKING PROTECT HER?" Sasha threw her phone down on impulse, not wanting to hear another word from Sami.

Just when she thought she could focus for just one moment.

* * *

JoJo fluttered her eyes open only to be greeted by pure darkness. Her eyes weren't covered, but zoning in and out of consciousness made her eyelids heavy and painful. The pounding at her temples sunk into her eardrums as her small frame was chilled frozen; every attempted move imitated spikes seeping out of her skin. Raising up with all her strength, she was discouraged to be weighed back down onto the stiff surface beneath her. She placed her hands in front of her chest as the strong casting met her touch...

That's when she realized she was compacted, barely able to breathe, and trapped.

She screamed.

Panicking she kicked her legs as hard as her fear would let her while clawing until her nails became raw scarlet streams.

* * *

Sasha chewed her nails down to the bone. It had been too long and as time stood still no one had any word of the whereabouts of JoJo. Making a promise to her friend that she wouldn't allow her to be as involved was a grave failure.

More emphasis on the word grave as Brock was unpredictable. He did no negotiating; you either gave him what he wanted or he took everything you had.

And as hungry for that USB as Sasha was—JoJo was like her sister and leaving her in the dust like that was not an option.

Sasha muttered every unholy word she could think of. Her options were limited. She needed help beyond the small ring of alliances she developed.

Who was she going call? Angelo?

Angelo Dawkins was about as good as Hawkeye; pretty much useless.

She poured her third cup of coffee at the Cimmaron cafe and drank it black.

Sasha swung her purse around her shoulder and sighed seeing one Dean Ambrose scarfing down on some bacon waffles and a tall German beer. Sasha shook her head. Who randomly has beer with waffles?

Sasha jumped as her back pocket buzzed sporadically; she glanced at her phone as a private Facetime call rang in. She looked around and raised a brow before opening up the video call.

"I'd be glad to see me too,' the Sellout's white teeth appeared on the screen. A hard line went across the Boss's forehead.

"What the fuck, Seth?" Sasha peered over her shoulder to see that Roman had appeared through the thunder joining his friend.

"Look, I know you're a bit busy these days, old friend, but I wanted give you my best wishes for you match tomorrow at Takeover."

Sasha's face flipped into a baffled stare. "You're. Playing. Games."

"Exactly and I knew you liked to play with me, so let me lay out the rules," Seth seemed to be walking into some building. He shuffled his phone before pulling out a silver chained necklace pendant cross. Sasha's eyes widened at the sight of the familiar jewel.

It belonged to JoJo.

"Seth, where is she?" Sasha squeezed her phone keeping her composure to her best ability.

"Suffering for _your _mistakes,"

"Don't hurt her, please..." Sasha's voice cracked, "this is all me, she has nothing to do with this!"

"That's Brock decision to make," Seth's dark irises glowed through the video call, "there's no controlling a monster, however you may wanna try giving Brock what he wants."

"I don't know where it is...I can't."

"That's where my plan becomes the light at the end of the tunnel," Seth smirked sadistically, "I'll be able to buy your friend some time, if you do me one little favor."

She was about to sell her fucking soul to the actual devil.

Sasha shook her head fighting back the raging tears inside of her. She reached into her bag pulling out a pair of white blue-tooth headphones—she popped them into the headset jack on her phone listening to Seth speak his dark words carefully.

Sasha hesitated in a silent stance for a moment before nodding her head in agreement. "Okay, deal."

She took the ear-buds from her ears and looked Roman's way. Before gravitating towards the Samoan Thor immediately shot his eyes towards her; she hesitated having every word Seth said on playback as her gut fill with guilt.

"Roman...can you please come here for a moment?" she asked in an uneasy tone. Dean lifted from his plate attempting to interject, but Roman had quickly come to Sasha's attention. Sasha full of rage, pain, and confusion swung her hand hard at Roman's face.

Roman, not bothered by the attack stared down at her. Sasha spat words of blame at him; second nature as her emotions blundered her. "You're always saving everyone...where were you when we needed you the most?" Sasha muttered through her tears, pleading for the help to find her friend. Burying her face into Roman's chest.

Sasha let Roman hold her for what it seemed like eternity. Not that it was exactly terrible. Dean, however did a great job making snarky comments before mentioning the storm. No worries, The Boss got a few swings in before being forced into the car.

Dean dropped them off at the Regency before driving back into the storm that was riling up in Florida. The hurricane winds were high and well, they kinda had no choice. Sasha walked next to Roman slumbering into herself as he ordered a room with one bed. They took the elevator and entered the grandiose space. Sasha's jaw dropped at the interior design. Nothing she expected from anything out of America. Stone marble and smooth tiled walls and floors. Red was the theme. A nice jacuzzi—which at the moment had no use, but the bathroom was huge and so was the bed.

Sasha planked onto the bed feeling sleep call her name—heck it was hollering for her.

"I take it you like this," Roman said flashing a sincere smile.

"Well if you must know," Sasha shrugged giving a smug look, "yea, it'll help me sleep easy during the storm."

Sasha pulled off her navy hoodie and laid it on a nearby chair.

"If you get any sleep, you mean, I mean they may have us-'

"Don't fuck with my emotions, Roman!" Sasha snapped slamming the bathroom door behind her. She took a deep breath before twisting the knob on the shower. She stepped under the hot running water letting her thoughts catch up to her.

What was this? What was she even doing anymore? Was it really so wrong to shade Roman like this...

But why should she care anyway? Her agenda was for herself, not for him.

After about thirty-minutes, Sasha stepped out of the shower relaxed as the uneasiness slightly faded. She wrapped herself in a towel and stepped outside the shiny tiled wash room. Roman was standing at the other end of the room staring out the window. His shirt was off and a bad sight it was not. Sasha couldn't help but trace over the family tattoo that graced Roman's upper body. She indeed had an obsession with art, but Roman himself was just as fascinating. She never understood what it was about him that made her want to know more, but she never got to act upon those feelings due the excruciating circumstances over the past few months.

Maybe she could find out now. She was going to be stuck with him during the storm, so why not try to put the distress aside and get to know him.

"You act like you've never seen a shirtless man before," Roman said gazing out of his peripheral. Sasha shrugged sitting on the edge of the bed.

"I'm a bit confused about you, right now," Sasha confessed, "with all this...nonsense, it just makes it that much harder."

Roman nodded walking from across the large room and taking a seat next to her. "I definitely agree,"

"Really now?"Sasha locked her eyes on his gray-blue gaze. Roman immediately nodded.

"It could have been real simple for us, but people got in the way," he looked down to the floor and back at her, "Seth, AJ, and the god damn photo."

"Hm," Sasha sighed pulling off the towel covered her hair, the crimson waves dropped past her shoulders.

"You bailing on me hurt more than you think," he said watching her facial features tweak.

"Mercy is for the weak," Sasha had no intentions to apologize, she knew what she did was cold, but she simply didn't want the help from Roman. It was her problem to solve and she always found a way to win. "You probably wouldn't understand that though, because for some reason always playing hero is so important to you. If only you could understand things from my perspective."

Roman shook his head in disbelief. "You're a real piece of work," he started, "I can't help but wonder if you just want me to be more like you so that I mold into what you really want," Roman stated sternly, "cold blooded, no mercy...you want me to turn heel."

"No..." Sasha quickly refuted, "I don't, I just wish you weren't so..urg!" Sasha lost her words in that instance staring at overdone floor. If he was trying to piece at her emotions again, it was definitely working. Having every ounce of insecurity drawn on the whiteboard was overwhelming; she hated being read like a book.

"No matter how much bad you do, you'll never be a bad person—you're just misunderstood." Sasha caught a glimpse at Roman's sincerity. As many times as Sasha pushed Roman away, for some reason he never gave up on her.

As much as she hated to admit it, it was a good feeling knowing that she had someone like him in her presence. It was even more adamant when his comforting touch on her chin swooned her as he moved her crimson hair out of her face.

Sasha hesitated before their lips touched. It was different this time, maybe because her mind was bound for weeks now, but either way it was captivating; her knees fell into a weakness as the kiss deepened into a hunger.

"I want this," Sasha muttered through their pause, Roman released the towel wrapped around Sasha's small frame. His hands touched her delicate skin so gingerly, accustoming to every movement; his lips took her places exploring her body into a heated lust.

"Keep going," Sasha demanded engrossed with passion. Roman had finally gotten out of his clothes concurring with her commands; he continued kissing her body unveiling her sensitive areas and Sasha's soft moans were more than enough to signal her positive stimulus.

Sasha's hands waved with energy as she took his length into her palms. Stroking him. Roman wasn't giving in easy and with that mindset he balanced the sexual intensity by driving his fingers into her core. Well he won that fight.

"Let me take you," Roman whispered as she squirmed from the intense pleasure.

"Take me.." she muttered the words past her moaning, her body was too eager to have him inside of her.

"Tap and I will," Roman said spinning into her core, Sasha cursed biting her lip as her body betrayed her hesitation; her back arched as her moans gradually grew loud—definitely something that had never happened before.

It was only about twenty seconds before she finally tapped, but it was worth every motion because now Roman was fully inside of her. Pounding into her until neither of their stamina could hold up anymore. They both collapsed into a utopia of long awaited pleasure.

Sasha's heart rate was at full speed. Finally slowing down; she took deep breath's recovering from the physical pleasure that melted between her and the Samoan Thor. Sasha moved from under Roman to beneath the blankets and locked her eyes closed. Soon then Roman was in a deep peaceful sleep and the storm outside had died down. She must have blocked it out completely.

Sasha stretched her body out turning to the side and staring into the darkness.

She used a moment like this to reiterate every word Seth had spoken earlier in the day one Facetime; it hovered in her mind:

_Listen to me carefully. Roman is due to return soon and when he does; he's not taking to my liking at all. I put him and Dean through enough hell for the thirst of blood to be a never ending agenda. I need you to hinder that. With the Authority gone, my power binge has been tackled by a bunch of fucking monkey's. Roman is going to come back ripping through any and every one to claim his place in the spotlight and that means the fall of me. I need you stop him. I need you to be the venom that dazes him into infatuation. His pride is what keeps him roaring at the top of the mountain, but as much as I hate it and hate to say it...his weakness is you. He'd do anything for you; which makes you the perfect candidate to destroy him from the inside out. Can you do that? You agree to this and I promise your friend...you sister, JoJo will be safe and I'll get her back to you in one piece. _

**NXT {R}Evolution December 11th, 2014**

"I have to pee," Sasha nervously paced back and forth backstage as Becky raised a baffled brow. The Irish diva checked her phone.

"You just peed five minutes ago!" Becky shook her head, "you're pregnant!" That was a little louder than expected and wrong—so wrong.

"NO!" Sasha widened her eyes at her friend's odd accusation, "I always have to pee before a match especially for something like this."

"Who's pregnant?" Angelo peeped around the corner before joining the two clearly uninvited. Sasha scoffed before taking another swig of her vitamin water.

"Goodbye, Angelo," Sasha shooed the former lackey away, she looked into the mirror tracing over her hair and make-up once more. "I feel like a mess, how do I look?" She turned to her friend who gave a nod of assurance.

"Nothing has changed in the last five-minutes," Becky said confidently, "now go pee again before your match starts." Becky patted her on the back.

"It went away," Sasha said hopping onto a crate and using a few meditation techniques to relax, "I'm beating Charlotte tonight, I need too."

"Keep your head in the game and you will," Becky prepped up Sasha's newly designed jacket and draped it around the Boss's arms, "you sure you don't need me out there?"

"I got this," Sasha shook her head, "I can do this," the speakers blared the iconic beats of Sasha's theme.

"Kick her ass!" the Delty diva egged her fellow BAE partner. Sasha smiled charging through the curtain and put all personal thoughts in a box. She strut down to the ring, shading the rude fans—but to her surprise there was a lot less rude and more ride.

The NXT crowd was definitely fun.

Eden announced the match hyping the crowd even more. Sasha flipped her hair back as Charlotte gave her a nasty look. That was fine, because hers was nastier and came with a bitch slap.

The two chained up, quickly reversing each others tactics—they knew each other in and outside of the ring well, so it was easy yet frustrating to navigate past their old tricks, but both had new ones.

Charlotte was fancy in the ring, using her gymnastic background and catching Sasha in some interesting predicaments. Locking up Sasha for a take-down, but the Boss uniquely used her small frame to slide over Charlotte and reverse into a bankrupt. The three count didn't go.

Sasha used the ring as a weapon—tripping up the Flair when she least expected. Her style was speed and unique ring tactics and transitions. She even took time mocking Char's Daddy's strut just for the hell of it; Flair went for the roll up, but Banks quickly kicked out. The two delivered a few kicks and chops before they were back onto the mat. Sasha put Charlotte into a figure head-choke, wasn't it fun mocking your former friend.

After bouncing off the ropes Sasha followed up with a headscissors takedown crossing Charlotte's arms in the process to get her down for a submission.

Charlotte got out the hold before irish whipping her former friend onto the ropes. Sasha bounced from the ropes with the intention of taking out the NXT divas champion with a clothesline, but it back fired. Charlotte's strength and size prevailed giving a spear like move to Sasha, making her body back-flip completely. The wind was knocked out of her; she swore her ribs had snapped into pieces, but that wasn't going to stop her.

Sasha was able to catch Charlotte outside the ring lingering and dizzy. The HBIC took advantage risking it all by going for the suicide dive—something she hadn't done since her Mercedes KV days. She nailed it taking out Charlotte. The crowd was so into the match, but Sasha heard her name, all she wanted was that belt fitting around her waist; she wanted it so bad.

After getting Charlotte back into the ring she went for the pin. Frustrated the ref didn't making it past two. Sasha wanted to rip her hair out. She screamed. This was her time. Charlotte took advantage of Sasha wailing her emotions and knocked her to the mat. The Flair climbed to the top of the ring and went for a moonsault. Missed it. Sasha predicted that immediately, but she didn't catch the back up move Charlotte had waiting with agile and stability she followed with a front standing senton.

One...Two...

Sasha kicked out pushing Charlotte off of her. Her ribs were throbbing, her body was just about broken and she felt like her legs were going to give out. Charlotte whipped Sasha to the corner of the ring and charged at her. Banks jumped up and caught her neck with her legs. She used her leg strength to slam Charlotte's face into the turn buckle. Perfect set up, Sasha thought. She prepped Charlotte up onto the rope setting up for a superplex. Lifting with all her strength, Charlotte reversed the former BFF lifting her body into the air and slamming it down hard into the mat. Charlotte had the ultimate advantage; balancing on the top rope as Sasha wobbled to her feet; the Flair caught Sasha in a super Natural selection for the win.

Not knowing if it was her psyche or a really bad blow; Sasha blacked out for a few moments before opening her eyes in the middle of the ring. Charlotte stood there with the championship held high and quickly a scowl formed on Sasha's face. It was beyond anger; she was in full out cold blooded rage; she had never felt so out of sync, so disgruntled, so...

Defeated.

She was going to ruin her.

Scratch that, she was going to ruin everyone until she got what she wanted.

Sasha's body boiled over as glared full fire at Charlotte, she held the back of her head squeezing her nails into the base of her head. A few medics came to her aide, but she brushed them off standing to her feet. She heard nothing. She saw nothing, but red. She disappeared behind the curtain.

Becky was waiting there for her offering a hug to her friend. Sasha shook her head.

"You did great out there," Becky said sincerely, but Sasha didn't hear her. Her mind was too clouded, too gone. She walked past her ally and a few others attempt at greeting her. The last one to try was Roman, but she couldn't see him either.

She closed the locker room door behind her. Bolting a chair in front of the door to keep alone for sure. She took a seat on the bench her adrenaline had gone no where. She couldn't feel the pains and aches from the match because she didn't do good enough; she would have the belt if she did.

Her dark brown eyes shifted into complete dark orbs as unexplainable rage controlled her. She screamed a curdling one that embodied all of the backstage area. She destroyed everything in sight, kicking, punching in mirrors, thrashing her head into the wall. Shards of glass pierced her skin, but she didn't feel anything nor did she care.

Time couldn't pass her rage by any means. Hours passed by before she semi snapped back into herself. She did a quick shower and change before grabbing her belongings to leave.

Exiting the locker room, Sasha gazed down the shaded halls of Full Sail. Becky sat outside the door waiting for her; half asleep her eyes immediately opened when Sasha stepped next to her.

"Hey, you ready?" Becky yawned as Sasha gave a responsive nod.

"Yeah...thanks for waiting," her voice was cracked from all the screaming. The two headed out to the parking lot that only had two cars left. They hoped into their civic and drove back to the apartments.

Little did they know a spare pair of eyes were locked in on them. He crossed his arms as he gawked from the top of the building. He smirked, pulling out his Iphone dialing in a number.

"She's exactly where she needs to be," the COO said raising a smirk onto his face.

* * *

**Thank you all for the feedback and reads! I hoped you enjoyed the Chapter! Don't forget to read the others to avoid any confusion! And because these writers are pretty awesome too!**

**Pride by RontheRonin (The core story, Roman's journey)**

**Envy by MellyxBrooks (The Miz's journey)**

**Revenge by XxPikasixjoyxX (Seth Rollins journey)**

**Insanity by Cody'sfavoritexgirl (Dean Ambrose's journey)**

**Baci! 3 3**


	12. Scarlet Sage

**Chapter 12**

Paying for that plane ticket was the best thing.

Ever.

Sasha waited at least three hours for someone from Expedia customer service to answer the damn phone. It was worth the wait, she needed the last two plane tickets to Boston; she was getting the hell out of Florida. Which was surprising because a few months ago she loathed leaving the place; WWE was her now, her love, and her future.

Was.

Now she wasn't sure if she even wanted to go back. She didn't need anyone to tell her that something was seriously wrong, not only with herself, but with the god damn company. At this point people were only safe when they were inside of the ring; you were always constantly watching your back otherwise. The Authority wanted complete control to the point where people were disappearing, dying, and now whoever else was chasing for the same power out there would kill without hesitation.

Even she was hurting people to survive. It was just one big mess—and now with one of her closest friends missing, she was back with dealing with the very man who held a gun to her chest just to get JoJo back.

It as so fucked up.

Sasha packed a few luggage rollers with clothing that would compliment Boston's weather. She missed the snow, the beauty, and her family more than anything right now. All more to share with Becky was tagging along with her; definitely a much needed vacation.

Relieved for the holiday season, she switched the light to her apartment off and closed the door behind her. Becky waited in the car ready to hit the traffic to the Orlando airport. Thankfully they weren't far from it by any means so the drive was about ten minutes. No surprise that the holiday rush was on as people cursed like maniacs trying to catch their flights and even a few fellow colleagues were off to travel home as well. As the duo trailed through the airport runway; a swarm of people, mostly female and little children stampeded by them with raging smiles on their faces and some even streaming with tears. Sasha raised a brow; then perked her eyes as she saw none other than John Cena standing at the end of the hall handing out a few autographs before heading through the tunnel passage. Sasha and Becky scrambled through the fan-gasms as security tamed the crowd stepping on some green little person in the process. Maybe it was a doll? They shrugged, grabbing their bags from the scanner then proceeded through the dark tunnel on to the over conditioned plane. Cena glanced behind giving team B.A.E a smile.

"Hey Boston!" Cena blared every ear in the vicinity, "you going home for the holidays?" Cena inquired and Sasha quickly nodded. Though she couldn't pull out much of a smile though. The effort was there.

"The best place to be right about now," Sasha answered taking the window seat next to Becky and behind Cena. "And I suppose you're heading home for the rest?"

"Every year," he said as some small lady with a hijab wrapped around her face with sun glasses took a seat next to him. "I'll never leave West Newbury behind." Sasha nodded giving a small smile noticing that Nikki was no where to be found, guess they were meeting there or something?

"I wish I never left Boston," Sasha uttered a low tone as she leaned back into her seat. Cena raised a brow and shook his head.

"Doesn't sound right coming from someone who wanted to wrestle their whole life,"

"Nostalgia..."

"More like sick of the bullshit that's been going down," John argued, "use these couple of days to get away from it all, because when you get back those problems will be there, you'll just have to fight through them all." John left her with some food for thought, he then placed his hand on the shoulder of the lady sitting next to him in a comforting manner.

Who is that anyway? Sasha squinted trying to make out her face, but the disguise won. Oh well. The Boss shook it off as the plane set for lift off.

The icy crystals reflected from the ground as Boston's forecast was for a white Christmas. Sasha couldn't help the excitement of being back in her home town—even if it was for just a mere

two days. They grabbed a rental car and headed straight to her mother's house; the last time she payed a grand visit to her mom's, the garden was green with her gardening obsession brightening the mood with various colors of flowers. Now there was just snow covering the house and grass around it. Sasha tapped on the door and no more than three seconds later did her mother open the door with a big smile on her face.

"Oh you brought company," her mother jeered giving Becky a hug as well.

"Nice to meet you Ms. Banks."

They kicked the snow off their boots before stepping inside the house. Of course her mother being huge on every holiday had over decorated. It was fine, it was refreshing anyway when being gone so much; the two hung up their jackets and planted on her mom's sofa. The place was still fragrant with scarlet pineapple sage Sasha inhaled—she was definitely home.

"Your father will be back soon," she raised from the kitchen, bringing out a basket full of freshly baked lentil cookies and chai. Sasha gave a slight nod dipping into the batch carefully, it was getting close to a hundred questions of what have you been doing while out on the—

"So tell me everything I've missed," she jumped right into the mess Sasha needed to ignore.

"You've been watching the show on the network haven't you?" Sasha said pouring a small cup of tea. Becky was already throwing down on the carbs no issues relaxing at all.

"I have been, but I'm talking about everything in between," she crossed her leg waiting for the story to being; Sasha did a small sigh.

"I've just been focused, you know, really getting into character," she started flatly, "nothing internally new about me that we need to discuss."

"Are you dating anyone?" She took a sip of her chai, "that Seth Rollins 'guy?"

"Oh, no we are not dating.." Sasha said refraining from raising her voice.

"Well I guess he must be a good friend then," her Mom shrugged frowning a little, "he stopped by last month so I'm sure he must like you enough for a relationship."

Becky's eyes widened as she sunk into the couch.

"Not at all," Sasha gripped her tea cup while raising a brow, "and mother we need to talk about you letting people in the house when I'm not here."

"Oh honey it's fine," she said throwing up her hands, "I know he works with you, no harm in your nice friends giving me a visit."

"What exactly did he want?" Sasha was a little anxious to know that Seth would stop by her mother's house again, even with all the chaos conjuring up. The last thing she wanted was any of family involved.

"He left something from back in June."

"I honestly thought you would have thrown whatever it was away..."

"Don't be silly," Ms. Banks walked back into the kitchen, "can you grab the mail please." Sasha sighed knowing the conversation was far from over; she reached for the mail outside and furrowed at the red shimmery invitation.

"It's something," Sasha said handing the envelope to her mother.

"Speaking of which, I got a call from the Cena family and they are having a dinner party tonight—I'm sure they wouldn't mind your friend coming as well since they are just as nice as you."

"Nice?" Becky said glancing at Sasha.

"How about not Mom," Sasha interjected it was nice that Cena wanted them over and all, but she didn't really feel like it, "I mean your cooking is the best and there's really no point—"

"Well I've already accepted so we're going," her mom said in a sweet, but stern voice. Sasha tightened her lips her Mom grimaced a moment when glaring a the letter. "This is actually for you," she handed it back to Sasha.

An invitation for her? She unfolded the card baring confusion on her face. _Masquerade Ball 1__2__/__31__/1__4__'_ with an address hidden in time square. _Mask only._ No inviting phrase was printed on the card, but an interesting message _ If passion drives, let reason hold the reins. -Ben Franklin. _

Sasha folded the letter close and placed it into her purse. Right as she reached in her phone buzzed with an incoming call from Roman Reigns. Wanting to send it to voicemail, Sasha cursed under breath knowing if she ignored it now it would only escalate Reigns' curiosity later.

"Hey.." Sasha greeted the line. Uneasy was all over her voice, "what's up?" she continued.

"Hey, I was just checking up on you after...well it's been a couple of weeks now since the storm," Roman did well at paraphrasing the them having sex part.

"I've been okay..." Sasha said smiling on the other end, only because her mother's ears moved in on her conversation. "Just ah...busy."

"I don't want things to be awkward between us," Roman's calm tone reassured, "I know this is...quite a step for us to take..."

"Yeah...quite..." Sasha stuttered a bit, "look Roman...I'd love to discuss this another time...like maybe after Christmas?" Sasha wanted off the damn phone fast.

"No problem," Roman said in an understanding tone, "you have a good Christmas, babygirl."

"Yeah, you too." Sasha said quickly ending the call.

* * *

Sami entered the performance center damning himself into distress; there was no lead on JoJo, not even a whisper. The police were treating her disappearance as if it was a joke; it was a closed circle. No one, but a few had said a thing about Lesnar's attack. Demott refuted any allegation that Sami had against him. He knew Sasha was working to look for her, but her methods of shoot and grab were more of a hazard than he had preferred. He cursed throwing a stray laptop across the hall—only to be greeted by Adrian Neville. Sami really didn't have time for a round about chat. Sami won the NXT championship at the most recent NXT PPV from Adrian himself, but things hadn't exactly calmed down between the two best friends.

"Sami, you need to relax and calm down," Adrian said, wiping the sweat from his forehead with a towel. It had been a rough sparring session and a week had easily passed by without them hearing a word from JoJo. Sami, with angry eyes, stared down Adrian. "I'll calm down once I know where JoJo is and she's back safely with me—I mean, the rest of us," he responded.

Adrian shook his head at the defiant nature of Sami's attitude. "Look Sami, I want her back here as much as you do, believe me; but if you hadn't been snooping around sticking your nose where it didn't belong, she wouldn't be in this ugly situation," he pointed out. The Man That Gravity Forgot was definitely fond of the short young ring announcer as well. The energy and work ethic she put in to her mic skills, not to mention the enthusiasm she oozed when announcing his name coming to the ring, had really won him over.

"Excuse me, are you trying to imply that all of this is my fault? And how the hell did you even know about the damn USB to begin with? The only person who knew about the damn thing was me and John Cena," Sami implied, clinching his fists about ready to explode. His friend was really testing his patience, even if patience was a virtue.

"I found out once I heard JoJo talking to Sasha Banks about it, so I decided to take matters into my own hands to get her out of trouble and save us all the embarrassment of what was to come," Adrian explained, as if he had every sense of logic in what he did was completely right. Sami, as expected, gave an angry retort to his friend's explanations.

"It was none of your business to begin with! I don't care if JoJo was snooping or not, she didn't try to actually physically do anything about it. Now, Brock's made mince meat of the entire damn developmental system and we don't have anything to show for it. All because of your selfish ass actions!" the Canadian grappler screamed. He was so close to losing his cool, and at any moment he felt that he could snap.

Adrian shook his head. "Always shouldering the blame, and yet always trying to put the spotlight on you to make yourself look like the sympathetic hero, eh Sami? Is that what JoJo sees in you? Because I guarantee you that for everything that you're good at, I've always been one notch better, and she knows that. And now thanks to your blind spot, she's probably eternally doomed," he pointed out, starting to butt heads with furious best friend.

"No one told you take the damn USB from her or me in the first place!" Sami yelled, louder than before, earning some looks from Angelo Dawkins, Baron Corbin, and Alexa Bliss as he shoved his friend back a few steps.

Adrian returned the shove as the animosity between them became a full out brawl. A few trainers broke them up as the two swung at each other like madmen. Sami fumed as other rookies around attempted to separate the two. It was all to a grimy end when a new and bitter NXT star entered the conversation.

Kevin Owens cracked every joint in his body before gleaming a wide grin. He shook his head at the pathetic battle meddling between the old indie friends. "You two have just made the biggest mistakes of your lives." Owens crossed his arms as Sami and Adrian broke the fight up and moved their attention to Owens. "Feeling better?" Kevin laughed sadistically when hinting at his attack on Sami right after he won the title.

"Owens! You son of a—" Sami was cut off by Owens' hitting both him and Adrian with a double clothesline—taking them out cold. He dusted his hands off before walking out the performance center.

It was time to make a visit to Adrian's place. That USB needed a new home.

* * *

Dinner party was an understatement. Sasha didn't know how many family members Cena had lingering around which was fine. A few stray WWE superstars were in attendance including her Becky, Sheamus, and even Finn Balor. Sasha grabbed a plate and headed into the dinning room to take a seat.

"Well isn't it the Boss of NXT herself," Finn smiled holding out his hand, "very pleased to see you here."

"The life," Sasha shook his hand smiling back, Finn let out a chuckle. "I heard you used to be much nicer." He took a seat next to her.

"Do people say I'm mean now or something?" A hard line swept across Sasha's forehead, Finn gave a slight shrug.

"It's more like you've changed,"

Sasha closed her eyes and screamed a little inside. "Who hasn't?" Sasha nodded her head, "I'm always being shaded, so now I just take what I want."

"That's definitely a bold statement and easier said then done."

"It's hard until you stop giving a fuck," Sasha shrugged. "I made the easier choice."

"You have a point, but do you ever think about the backlash?"

"No," Sasha fired, "I only think about now, at this point that's all I can think about." Sasha gave Finn a daunting grin.

"Isn't that a little unsettling," Finn agreed, "what about how it effects those around you?"

"Do you have a psychology degree?" Sasha smacked her teeth feeling like Finn was a walking ICD 9. "Look, Finn I know you're trying to give me advice, but I'll be okay—" Sasha was quick to change the subject and grabbed a beer to hand to Finn. "Now let's talk about you, welcome to NXT, weirdo."

"You enjoyed my entrance at R Evolution?" Finn accepted the beer and popped it open.

"I was wondering if you were on drugs, actually," Sasha joked, "but it was amazing, very unique...reminded me of your indie days" she grabbed a few appetizers.

"I didn't know you watched?" Finn in sarcastic flattered tone.

"YouTube is an amazing source," she laughed. Various family members and friends of Cena entered the large room. Sasha's mother was off chatting with someone and Cena had brought in more food for the gathering. Walking right next to John was a short and clouded A.J. Lee. Sasha kept her grimace to herself as the Black Widow waved to her and glanced back down to the ground. Sasha was no psychologist by any means, but she could tell that A.J. was in some sort of distress. Rumors floated that A.J. and C.M. Punk were getting a divorce; harsh. Everyone thought what they had was...

unbreakable?

A.J. took a seat on the couch across from Sasha. Honestly Sasha didn't know what the hell the deal was with AJ. The Boss helped her when her former best friend Paige tried to attack her backstage, then sulked about who the real enemy was. Other than that they hadn't spoken since.

A.J. took a sip of her apple cider staring at Sasha hard.

Did she do something?

"Hey..A.J.," Sasha said waving at her unmoving eyes.

"Good to see you, Sasha," A.J. was a bit monotone as if she trying really hard to speak, the Black Widow sighed. "I was expecting to see you as champion."

"You and me both," Sasha said sinking the anger inside of her, "by the way thanks for the Slammy shout-out."

"Anytime," A.J. flashed a dark smile, "though I think I spoke too soon," she said clearing her throat, "I mean you weren't good enough to win the NXT Women's championship from someone you knew so well...such a shame."

"My mind was distracted."

"That's what happens when you let Roman Reigns have a taste," A.J; casually hinted as the chatter in the room got lower. "How was he?" A.J. took another sip of the sweet apple drink.

"Excuse me?" Sasha cocked her head forward as rage formed into her soft expression.

"A.J...don't," Cena interjected as the Black Widow stood to her feet.

"I said, how was he?!" She raised her voice sure to catch everyone's attention. "I mean since we all know you've been itching for other ways to make it to the top...you have to start on _top_ of someone now don't you?" A.J. blurted and glared over to Sasha's mother who had both her eyebrows raised. "Mrs. Banks, do you know how much your daughter has changed since she's left your home?"

"Okay, bitch I don't who the hell you think you are," Sasha snapped standing to her feet as a few glasses shattered on the table.

"You don't have to have this facade anymore, Sasha," A.J. pushed out of John Cena's grip moving within inches of Sasha's face. "Tell your Mom how you went from this bubbly, humble girl—to a vindictive, desperate, slut."

Sasha didn't hear the words, because she was already jumping over the table and tackling A.J. to the floor. The place had become a mad house as everyone scattered like rats as the two broke into a war. Not exactly a cat-fight as the two were throwing some hard punches as they rolled all over the ground. As if getting away from the very world that was driving her insane, it wasn't enough.

Nothing ever was. Again she was at zero to ten losing all control; everything around her was red all over again—not that it would ever change.

Time was driving rapidly as Sasha found herself reaching for something anything close by—it was shiny, silver and sharp; she aimed at her throat blocking out all sound and activity around her.

"I'll never have to hear you again..." Was all Sasha could say before swinging her arm back.

"Sasha don't!" John Cena shrieked, as he speed through the room.

"Yes, Sasha, please!" A.J. cried with no attempt to stop the Boss.

Sasha was one step ahead of John as she swiped the knife with force at A.J.'s throat.

She snapped back into herself seeing a blood stream spit to the ground.

Cena was hovering over AJ, protecting her as blood dripped down from his shoulder. Superman made the save just in time.

Sasha's eyes wandered around as people gave stiff stares of fear at her. The one that hurt the most was the saddened, but frightened one from her mother.

**Thank you all for the feedback and reads! I hoped you enjoyed the Chapter! Don't forget to read the others to avoid any confusion.**

**Pride by RontheRonin (The core story, Roman's journey)**

**Envy by MellyxBrooks (The Miz's Journey)**

**Revenge by XxPikasixjoyxX (Seth Rollins journey)**

**Insanity by Cody'sfavoritexgirl (Dean Ambrose's journey)**


	13. Joseann

**Chapter 13: Joseann**

**A/N: This takes place after RonTheRonin's Pride Chapter 28, to avoid any confusion please make sure you have read it! Also just as a warning, religious and other sensitive material will be included here and forward. Thank you all for the support!**

**I Own nada.**

* * *

"_Forgive me __Fat__h__er__, for I have sinned,"_ the soft voice whimpered beyond the vented window. The Father turned his blended attention to the petite girl who hugged herself tightly, streaming tears of guilt down her yellow cheekbones.

"_Confess, my child,_" he responded in a warm sympathetic tone, the girl took in as much oxygen as she could before speaking.

"_I'm a murderer," _she confessed before the streams formed into waterfalls. The feeling you got when telling someone something that was going to eat a your heart forever was suppose to be reviving, instead she still felt as if it was ripping her soul.

"_Your reasons go unnoticed?"_ He inquired feeling the shaken soul.

"_I don't know—I dreamt it_, _but I know it was real...I kn__e__w it was me...but I don't know why I did it."_

"_Yo__ur soul has been tainted," _the Father glowered,_"the monsters and demons we fail to believe are real...inside of us..out of your vulnerability they got into your mind."_

"_I can't live like this," _the girl buried her face into her knees, "_I took a life..._

"_And still you shall be repented,"_ the Father said before shading the window dark. The girl lifted from the bench and pulled her Sherpa sweater over her arms. She left the confessional hall into the main of the church. The long eluded aisle had lit candles at the end for a peaceful environment, but the person standing at the double arched doors represented the opposite.

"It took you long enough," the two-toned demon had his arms crossed with a hard grimace across his face.

"Under five-minutes like you said," Jojo stared down to the wooden floor. It had been quite a few weeks. The last thing she remembered was Brock Lesnar destroying the NXT roster, then all of a sudden she was in the back of a black SUV with Nikki Bella and Seth Rollins. Per her request they took her to the nearest catholic church; the one thing she begged for over food and water. Through the nights she kept having a reoccurring dream of pointing a gun at CM Punk's head.

And Punk really being dead made the dream even more eerie.

Seth and Nikki said nothing about it—probably because they had no knowledge of who did it either, but their focus was the Authority.

JoJo followed Seth back to the car and climbed in next to Nikki Bella who was staring in a mirror.

"So what did you confess anyway?" Nikki said fixing her hair, "what bad thing could you have done while being in a cage for two-weeks?"

"Where are you guys taking me?" JoJo asked ignoring Nikki's BS.

"Just keeping my word on my part of the deal." Seth shrugged handing Jojo a small box wrapped in colorful paper. "Give this to Sasha for me, late Christmas gift." Jojo took the box reluctantly and placed it in her purse. Several minutes passed before they were on the main highway in Orlando.

* * *

Sasha screamed as the ice cold water pierced her skin; her eyelids lifted quickly and she slipped trying to get to her feet. "What the FUCK?!" her eyes shifted over her surroundings; she was still in the dress from the night(s)? before which was now presumably soaking in water. Finn, the mastermind of the cold shower, gave her a sarcastic smile. "Good morning!"

"No!" Sasha was pissed, but still couldn't get to her feet; since when was the bathtub so damn slippery? "What the hell are you doing?"

"You have a flight in two-hours," Finn said flashing his phone, it was twelve in the afternoon and Sasha was booked to roll with the main roster for a couple of weeks. The parties almost made her forget.

"Shit..I do...thanks," she grabbed the back of her head, "look you didn't have to babysit me..."

"Hey, no worries," Finn said throwing her a bottle of aspirin, "you've been hectic the last few nights, for some reason by the end of the New Year you were begging me to take you to Hogwarts."

"I guess I really was gone huh?" Sasha finally got to the other side of the tub and turned the hot water on.

"You passed out before the ball dropped, and before CM Punk did apparently too," Finn said shaking his head as Sasha draped the shower curtain close.

"Are you joking?" Sasha relaxed letting the warm water hit her face she threw the rest of her clothes out of the shower; she soon turned into a low frown once the silence from Finn kicked in.

"Wait...seriously?" she muffled through the water before slightly looking outside the curtain. "Dead?"

"Shot him right between the eyes..." Finn said in disbelief himself; Sasha sighed.

"In the midst of it all..some how they still win," Sasha rolled her eyes.

"You think the Authority did this?"

"They've been trying to get me to confess Punk was my attacker since this all started," Sasha gritted her teeth, "since that didn't work, then I wouldn't be surprised that this was their panic alternative—Seth probably was the one that pulled the damn trigger."

"What is it with you and bitterness with the former Shield members?" A hard line formed on Finn's face.

Sasha grabbed a towel and wrapped it around her body. Stepping out the shower she managed to get to her bed room and avoid falling for the millionth time. "One is way too infatuated by me, and the other just wasn't intrigued enough."

"Where do you go from here?" Finn followed behind her leaning next to the bedroom door.

"Nowhere! The only thing I need on my mind right now is wrestling and survival, not love...love is so fucking overrated and it's made me miserable."

"It may seem that way, but-"

"Stop!" Sasha said throwing something across the room, Finn quickly stopped his statement. "You're gonna tell me it's a negative way of thinking and I'm going to be alright in time, but really? I've heard that my whole life and everything has gotten worse." Sasha finished dressing in a white button down with dark faded jeans and mahogany boots.

The two were interrupted by thunderous knocking from the living room. Sasha glowered at Finn before opening the door, she cursed.

"Is this a bad time?" Seth said pointing to as shirtless Finn who was shading in the background.

"What are you doing here?' Sasha sighed heavily as the annoying Bella twin appeared next to Seth with her oversize boobs popping out of her damn shirt.

"We brought you an early birthday present," Nikki placed her hands on her hips. Seth let out a chuckled.

"I present to you, Joseann." Seth said reaching to the side and revealing a very alive JoJo. A big smile formed on Sasha's face before she briskly embraced her friend.

"Told ya you could trust me," Seth said cross his arms in a cockily manner, Sasha flipped him the bird. "How's the whole distracting Roman thing going?" Seth's expression was all over the place; was he really that paranoid about Reigns?

"Great.." Sasha trailed off shrugging, "but I guess I don't need to now that you've given my friend back to me."

"Things haven't changed princess, this deal is two-way—I need Roman distracted past the rumble" Seth flashed a sadistic smile Sasha rolled her eyes."

"Roman isn't easily distracted," Sasha wandered her gaze elsewehre. Nikki decided to voice her opinion.

"Are you kidding me? Just give him a little action and he'll practically become your puppet."

"Skankology 101," Sasha mugged Nikki before turning her attention back to Seth, "and what if my distractions don't work?"

Seth smiled wide and slightly shrugged, "I don't mind having tea at your Mother's house—something about that place that is just so...lively."

"Leave," the Boss slammed the door shut turning her attention back to her friend. She hugged her again and then examined her.

"You're okay?" Sasha raised a brow as JoJo slightly nodded as they both took a seat on the couch.

"Yeah...I'm good...I just really need some sleep," she sounded unruly Sasha shook her head.

"I'm sorry..."

"It's not your fault," JoJo refuted before her friend could start, "you told me to stay out of it and I didn't listen..." JoJo looked as if she was fighting back tears.

"Where did they take you?" Sasha glanced over to Finn who had made his way to the kitchen, "What happened?"

"I'm...not sure..." Jojo leaned back onto the couch, "it's all so..dark." It was briefly silent for moment before Sasha checked the time. "I'll call Sami and let him know you're here-."

"No," JoJo refused, "that's okay I really don't want him here right now." JoJo yawned into a glum stare. She reached into her purse and pulled out a small wrapped box with Sasha's name on it. "Seth wanted me to give this to you," Sasha curious and a very skeptical took the box.

"You can stay here as long as you need to," Sasha said fiddling with the present, "Becky and Finn will be around if you need anything."

"Thanks," JoJo's small voice searched for some hope. She laid on the couch gazing her dark irises far away. Sasha knew whatever it was, was deep—Seth may have brought her friend back in one piece physically, but mentally...

Sasha tossed the box in the air and caught it before going into her bed room. She set the box on her bed and stared at it for a few minutes.

Well, why the fuck not?

She peeled the gingerbread gift unveiling a cardboard box and tore that surface open. It made no noise, so obviously it wasn't going to blow up or at least she hoped so, but then what caught her was the smaller black box with a tantalizing diamond ring inside of it. Sasha then raised a brow as a text appeared on her phone.

_Just thought I remind you of how things could have been._

_-The Architect_

She fumed grabbing her luggage and storming back into the kitchen, Finn dashed out the way as Sasha took the ring out of the box and dropped it down the drain with the garbage disposal at full range.

"Keep an eye on her for me," Sasha said to Finn before leaving the apartment.

* * *

The NXT performance center was silenced as shock remained from the chaos that took place just days before. The New Years celebration that included many WWE/NXT superstars and divas ended with tragedy as multiple deaths happened to those dear to the company. Not all of them were in everyone's liking, but no one deserved such a tragic and unruly death. Among the demise of those lost was one very long inspiration to those up and coming. CM Punk had been murdered in cold blood and no one had seen it happen. His body hitting the floor limp and lifeless scarred their minds, but even more the Authority had been back in power and now no one truly knew who was next on the hit-list.

Everyone proceeded to their normal duties like robots as the COO scouted the orders and screened the rookies. Triple H was the head of NXT with or without the Authority being in power, but the more power he had the more control he utilized and that was one feeling everyone new Hunter would never pass up.

Sami Zayn, lost in thoughts perched his eyes as a text message from Sasha Banks flashed on his Iphone.

_She's okay. At my place, wants to rest._

_-KV_

Sami jumped out of his trance in awe as he finally got the answer he had been waiting weeks for. They had been looking for Jojo since Lesnar had taken her and with no luck hope was running slim. Finally she was back and he wanted to see her.

"In a hurry?" Adrian Neville stood in Sami's path curious as ever. Sami really didn't have the time.

"Look, I really gotta get—"

"Where is she?" Adrian said reading his friends actions automatically—he couldn't have been more obvious, but the focus as of late between the two was getting JoJo back.

"She's at Sasha's, and _I'm_ going to see her," Sami let out the ferocious point. Adrian grimaced in a combative stance.

"And what makes the right of you seeing her any more important than mine? You're not her only friend you know."

"She doesn't belong to either of you idiots," the tall female with high yellow skin and wavy dark locks to her waist interjected, "did it ever occur to y'all that maybe after whatever she's been through she needs a minute to breathe?"

Fresh new faces were no surprise around the NXT performance center, but this one indeed was intimidating; not because of the five-foot ten fury appearance, but because of her audacious prone attitude. Lina Fanene's boldness symbolized the Anoa'i roots she derived from—either way she told it like was.

And she feared no fucking body.

"I'm not trying to open up a can of worms, Lina, but what's it to you?" Adrian questioned.

"You said it yourself, Neville, JoJo has many friends around here that have been worried sick about her, but due to these power hungry leeches, no one's been able to do a damn thing about it."

"I just want to make sure she's-" Sami started

"When she wants to see you, she'll let you know, right now she doesn't need either of you fighting for her attention," Lina flipped her hair back and glowered at the two before making her way by.

* * *

Sasha brisked through the airport after stopping by the Starbucks and grabbing an Americano. She flew by a few frustrated people at bag checking almost tripping up one of her fellow colleagues and friends.

"Whoa," the friendly voice raised, "relax we still gotta little bit before we board," Naomi managed to keep Sasha from tumbling forward.

"Right," Sasha said shaking her head before sipping her drink, "I had crazy couple of days I just feel so off kilter," she sighed while rummaging through her bag, she pulled out her black glasses and placed them on her face.

"You look sick," Naomi mentioned softening her voice, "have you caught the bug that's been floating around?"

"If I have I haven't noticed," Sasha shrugged pulling strands of her hair out her face, "If I am sick I have a bunch of Emergen-C's coming with me and I'll hope they'll get me through this holiday tour."

"Are you excited?" Naomi nodded as the two sat in the flight lobby. Sasha gave a slight nod.

"Nervous and all of the above," Sasha finished her Americano, she checked the time and yawned glancing at the shortening line at the Starbucks. "Hey you want something? I'm gonna go get another."

"Yeah, a skinny latte please," Naomi replied. Jimmy and Jey Uso joined along with other superstars catching the Florida flight.

Out of her peripheral she could see a very shaded Roman making his way through the aisle. He had his headphones on and hair pulled back into a bun. Sasha tipped by hoping to go unnoticed, but failed successfully once someone's foot lead her to face-plant right onto the floor.

"Got her!" Dean yelped bursting into laughter. Sasha glared up to the Lunatic Fringe and gritted her teeth.

"Fuck. Your. Mother!" She yelled pushing herself off the floor. Roman laughed as he made his way over to Sasha aiding her to feet.

"You guys are so fucking rude, just rude." Sasha said fixing her hair.

"Lighten up, babygirl," Roman said grinning, "you need to be a little more aware nowadays."

Sasha rolled her eyes just to meet Roman's gleaming ones. If he stared any harder he could see into her soul.

"Can I get you something?" he asked pointing towards the barista, Sasha gave a slight shrug.

"I was just about to grab me and Naomi something it's fine—"

"I got you two," Roman said brushing it off. After he paid for the beverages they all went into the lobby. Sasha was a bit surprised by Roman's calm demeanor; especially after the way she treated him a few nights ago.

"I was a bit of bitch the other night," Sasha blurted as Roman took a sip of his Chai, "I'm ah...sorry."

"It's nothing," Roman leaned back in nonchalance, "don't worry about it."

"Okay..." Sasha awkwardly looked at her phone for a moment. Roman had in the meantime reached into his duffel bag and pulled out a rectangle box. It was wrapped with a shimmering red wrapping paper. He handed it to Sasha.

"Oh, what's this?" Sasha said letting the gift drop into her hand.

"Just thought you might like it," Roman said locking his eyes on hers, "since you're into Sailor Moon and stuff."

Sasha opened the gift still a little pissed off from earlier—she transitioned into a warm smile when she flipped the box open. The medium chained necklace was that of a crescent moon with a real diamond attached in the middle posing as the legendary silver crystal.

"Roman...ah...," Sasha cleared her throat when losing her words, "you really didn't have to get me this.."

"I know, but I wanted too," he assured, "it's yours," he leaned back into his music. Sasha gazed over the necklace, not even remotely sure of what she should do next.

"Thank you," she said sinking into her guilt. God help her if Roman ever found out the truth.

* * *

_The night terror never ended even during the day. Jojo's eyes forced open and she let out a scream that alarmed the neighbors. She looked down onto her small hands and gagged at the fresh blood that stained them. Her heart rate was at full max and she could only function the now—anything that had happened prior had completely phased out. To her left side, laid a large and bloodied butcher knife; to the right side was an unconscious body bleeding out all over her best friends living room._

* * *

**Thanks for reading! And Hey! Check out the connecting stories you won't regret it!**

**Pride by RontheRonin**

**Envy by MellyxBrooks**

**Revenge by XxPikasixjoyxX**

**Insanity by Cody'sfavoritexgirl**

**Baci! 3 3**


	14. Burning Hatred

**Chapter 14**

"JoJo?" The voice finally got through to her, the apartment went from a light fog to a clear picture. JoJo blinked shaking her head as the vision of a bloody knife disappeared along with blood stained upon her hands and the body...it all vanished. Finn and Becky stood in front her as if they had been waiting for hours.

Very much so an hour had went by while the two stood there in awe.

"Huh?" JoJo said stunned for a moment. Becky turned into the kitchen and grabbed a bottle of water and handed it to her.

"You were a bit zoned out," she said weary, "are you sure you're okay?"

"I think...I Just.." JoJo stuttered falling back onto the couch, "I'm sorry..." she unleashed a wave of tears as her flooded thoughts tangled together. Becky and Finn only said nothing to keep from overwhelming her.

"Look, why don't you just take today off," Becky sat next to JoJo in a calm demeanor, "take some time to get better."

JoJo swayed the tears from her rosy cheeks and nodded. She excused herself up to Sasha's bedroom looking to get some rest. As impossible as it was; at least she had sometime to really fathom what happened.

The dream in her head on repeat. Walking into the fancy venue with one task at hand. She had spoken with one other person who had handed her the gun, she'd grin taking the lethal thing and following the targets every move.

With mask on almost everyone was unrecognizable, but the fact that everyone thought that she had been missing made the kill even more thrilling. Easy. Cold.

But she wasn't herself.

And by the looks of it she would never be the same again.

* * *

It was only adamant to realize that it was Summer time when Summer was around, only not in the socialite frenzy type of way. Sasha was literally laid out on the Louisiana's Gold's Gym floor after a heavy cardio session with the StairMaster. The old friend of hers had punched the head right off the combat dummy with a kendo stick. Sasha raised a brow. "Are you okay?" she asked the blonde who grimed her way.

"No better than you," she scowled taking a swig of Powerade, "you enjoying the taste of the main roster?"

"I'm exhausted," Sasha said flipping to her back, "but yes." And no considering the ongoing predicament of the past few days. "Why the stank attitude?"

Summer swayed her blonde hair over he shoulders and coughed. "I don't mean to be a total bitch, but the past few days have been dark—I mean you were there at the Masquerade."

"Define there?" Sasha tightened her lips and rolled her eyes, "and you always mean to be a total bitch Summer."

"I forgot you probably had a date with tequila," Summer shrugged, "at least you didn't get caught up in the chaos."

"I didn't even know you were there?"

"I ran in for a few seconds," she shrugged, "I figured since I wasn't wanted there I just make my presence graceful then leave." Summer crossed her arms remembering that night.

Alright.

"Well isn't this interesting…" the haughty voice interrupted the two, the second blonde smiled standing next to Summer who was just thrilled to see her.

Really.

"Fuck off, Charlotte," Summer snapped sighing.

"Hey, chill out just like old times right?" Charlotte's plastic smile made Sasha sick.

"I didn't exactly plan on a reunion," Charlotte laughed looking down on her two former allies.

"And what do you want?" Sasha pushed herself off of the ground as Summer grabbed her bags and disregarded them all together.

"I'm actually here on a serious note," Charlotte lowered her voice in the echoing gym, "it's about the Authority."

"I don't want to hear anything you have to say," Sasha turned to walk away, but Charlotte caught her arm.

"I'm trying to help you," she said, "I know it's not exactly in my favor either, but the Authority's power is becoming a tyranny, you really think anyone wants to deal with that shit?"

"You have nothing to complain about," Sasha shook her head, " your Daddy is the reason why you will forever be in clear water."

"Don't guarantee it, everyone around here knows that if things aren't in Paul's order, he'll turn his back on anyone, even my Father."

"So what the fuck is new then?"

"I had a little chat with Nikki Bella," Charlotte said crossing her arms, "since their grand return, they decided that the wrath of you and Reigns needed to continue."

"With what evidence…?"

"I thought you be more careful with us travelling on with main roster, but somehow there's more than just picture floating around courtesy of the Miz."

Charlotte left those thoughts meddling behind Sasha's ears. The Boss of NXT cursed beneath her breath as Summer headed towards the exit. She ran across the black padded floor catching up to Rae just in time.

"Done listening to Charlotte's bullshit?" Summer said placing her sunglasses onto her face. Sasha shook her head.

"Actually I got a bit of a reality check," she said looking at the slender diva, "I have a bone to pick with the Miz."

Summer's face lit up even through her shades. "What makes you think I can help you with that?"

"Just because we haven't exactly been the best of friends lately, doesn't mean I'm completely out of loop."

* * *

JoJo opened her eyes not being entirely interrupted by a nightmare, but by a knock on the door. Finn and Becky weren't due to return until later tonight after the NXT events so who would be knocking at the door knowingly who was here. JoJo slid out of the bed slumping to the front door, she glanced through the peep hole.

How did he know?

She opened the door immediately seeing the overwrought eyes of Adrian.

"You're okay?" he said gently bringing her into an embrace. JoJo let out a small smile.

"I'm just glad I'm back."

"Me too," Adrian said looking into her doe eyes, "is it alright if I come in?" Jojo quickly nodded stepping to the side as he stepped into the apartment.

"It's been nothing, but nightmares since I've gotten back," JoJo confessed as she curled up onto the sofa. "and I don't even remember anything."

"None of that matters, you're back home safe," Adrian said scoping through the kitchen. He took out a few bags of chai and put them over the stove. JoJo tried her best to relax but the crawling feeling through her veins prevailed.

"I think I killed Punk…." JoJo blurted, Adrian almost dropped the kettle of tea, but was able to make it to the coffee table in one piece as his eyes bubbled.

"What did you just say?"

"I was there, Adrian," JoJo said unable to hold in her thought any longer, "I was at the masquerade, I don't remember how I got there, but I know I'm the reason why Punk is dead."

"No...no," Adrian said wandering comforting hands around JoJo, "none of that is possible-you wouldn't do anything like that."

"Adrian, please listen to me," JoJo pleaded, "I don't know….how, but I know that I did this." JoJo wiped the running tears from her eyes, "I'm a murderer."

"You're not," Adrian refuted locking eyes with her, "whatever happened wasn't your fault."

"I have to turn myself in," JoJo shook her head, "I can't just pretend like I didn't do this, my mind wants me to believe it's a dream….but I…."

"There's no way in hell you're turning yourself in," Adrian fired, "Look-" Adrian was taken back from the sound of the door creaking.

"JoJo?" Sami Zayn's eyes lit up, JoJo quickly turned meeting eyes with him. Though she didn't really want any company at the moment. It wasn't so bad seeing both of them for the time being. Sami pulled JoJo in from a hug taking the time away from Adrian.

"I thought you were off to an event," Adrian seethed in a calm manner. JoJo looked at Adrian and back to Sami. She knew Sami didn't hear what had been said about Punk, but time would eventually reveal the truth. She would wait a bit before revealing it to him.

Adrian grimaced at Sami who seemingly looked offended that he was even here. "Couldn't you have waited a bit before barging into here?"

Sami kept a collective and calm attitude while before responding. "Look, in essence neither of us should be here, I just wanted to make sure she was safe."

"No thanks to you," Adrian spat squeezing his fist together.

"The nerve of you saying that after you were the one who took the DAMN THING and didn't say a word to Lesnar before he obliterated us all."

"Guys, please don't," JoJo interjected,"it's neither of your faults."

"I want to agree with you JoJo, but when it comes to this guy and you-" Adrian started, but a fiery interruption blew his thoughts completely away. Sasha's apartment door had been completely blown off its hinges and through the brimstone and smoke walked the Director of Operations for the Cabal of the Authority, the Demon Kane. Trailing not far behind him were the cruiserweight tandem of security guards, J&amp;J Security, nearly healed from their injuries.

JoJo's eyes widened in immense terror and fear as the monster made his way towards her, but both Sami and Adrian both flanked the young Diva, threatening to take Kane on no matter the cost. Even Kane laughed at the "challenge" he thought they presented.

"You boys just don't give up do you? And here I was thinking that Brock's little visit to the Performance Center would have knocked some sense into you," Kane grimly grinned, as he nodded towards Mercury and Noble. "Take them," he ordered firmly. The security team nodded, moving in on Sami and Adrian, but they were no match for the two NXT stars.

Adrian delivered a thunderous kick to the head of Noble, caving his head into the wall and creating a massive hole, while Sami hit his patented Blue Thunder Bomb to Mercury through Sasha's favorite coffee table. Surely, she wouldn't be happy about that, but he was sure JoJo wouldn't tell a soul.

"Well...you took them out. Can't say I'm surprised though; it is hard to find good help these days," Kane said, pulling out his watch. "I'm afraid I have other business matters to attend to, so we need to wrap this up quickly. I believe you have something that belongs to the Authority, and I'm demanding it back. **NOW.**"

"Wh-what do you want? I don't have anything of yours," JoJo managed to speak up, before her throat went dry again in fear of the Big Red Machine. "The USB woman. I know you have it here right now in this vicinity, and I want it back. **NOW!"** Kane roared, more violently this time as fire erupted all throughout Sasha's kitchen, burning up some of her favorite Sailor Moon memorabilia.

"Run JoJo!" Adrian yelled, as he made a jump for the tall monster, clobbering Kane with a bunch of vicious left and right hooks, and after a spinning left kick, had the monster down to his knees. Sami capitalized and dropped Kane to the floor with a tornado DDT, but as if nothing had happened, Kane immediately sat back up.

"I'm under the impression that you boys think I'm playing a game with you. Well, I can assure you, this isn't some test for a main roster callup, and if you don't hand over the USB right now, I'll be forced to resort to physical violence," Kane ordered.

"Too late for that my friend," Sami said with a wry smile on his face as Adrian facepalmed himself. "Very well then," Kane said, taking off his cufflinks and suit jacket. "Don't say I never gave you a chance to do the right thing," he warned, and without a second more, he stiffly uppercut Adrian, sending the Newcastle native flying directly into the bookshelf full of Sasha's favorite manga.

Sami went for the Helluva Kick, but Kane immediately grabbed his foot and tossed him backwards, before delivering a stiff Big Boot of his own to the Syrian native, making him crash into the fridge. Kane ripped the refrigerator door off of its hinges and rammed Sami with it, sending him through the wall and into Sasha's bedroom. Kane then averted his eyes back to young JoJo.

"The USB. Now!" Kane yelled, and as the young singer stood frozen in fear, Kane grasped a hand around her throat, Adrian interfered just in the nick of time, slapping a sleeper hold on Kane and causing him to lose his focus. The sleeper hold only worked temporarily; as Adrian yelled for JoJo to make a break for it, Kane was finally able to grasp both of his hands on Adrian's throat, and hurled him straight through the window, causing the Man That Gravity Forgot to land on the front of Sasha's favorite convertible. Hard.

"I'll tear this place down brick by brick if I have to," Kane said, as he stepped into Sasha's bedroom and surveyed the beaten down Sami Zayn. "Why the hell is this room so damn pink? I thought she outgrew damn Barbies," Kane commented on the decor of Sasha's room before Sami blinded his eyes with some mace.

"Thank goodness for cosmetics," Sami remarked, as he rolled past Kane and grabbed JoJo, who had gotten lost in the smoke Kane's fires were starting. "We need to get out of here JoJo! Hop on my back!" Sami yelled, and without a second thought, JoJo quickly threw her arms around Sami's shoulders as he navigated his way through the thick smog that was beginning to fill Sasha's apartment.

Fires were beginning to erupt in every room now, and everything was beginning to set ablaze. The flames were beginning to dance their way over to the rest of the apartment complex, and nobody but Kane seemed to be affected. As the neighbors made their way out the home, Finn and Becky happened to pull up into the driveway, fresh off the night's NXT events.

"What the bloody hell is going on?!" Finn yelled, helping up an injured Adrian Neville to his feet, albeit very slowly. "Kane! He's here, and he's up there with Sami and JoJo!" Adrian exclaimed, and Becky immediately tried running back in there, but Adrian pulled her back by her hair to the ground.

"You can't do that, you'll get them killed!" Adrian said, before digging around in his pocket. "Besides, he's after this thing right here," he said, lifting out his pockets a shiny black USB. The _real _USB.

"You bloody idiot! That's what everybody's been after this whole fucking time?! Give the damn thing to him!" Becky yelled, but Adrian shook his head. "We can't give in to his demands," Adrian explained.

While they argued, Sami and JoJo had finally made their way to an open window with a fire escape, and as Sami let JoJo go through the window first, Kane grabbed Sami and pulled him back into the burning apartment building.

"Sami!" JoJo screamed at the top of her lungs, as the fire escape began to give way and eventually, the hinges gave way and completely fell off the side of the building. In the right place at the right time however was Finn, conveniently catching the songbird. "Sami's still in there with Kane! We need to help him!"

Most of the apartment began to give way and eventually, the burning building began to collapse into itself, and not too soon after, the apartment completely fell to the ground, burning every single thing to an absolute crisp.

"_Sami!" _JoJo let out a bloodcurdling scream that blew everybody's ears off. There was no sign of Sami. No sign of Kane either.

"No...no no...no...no…" JoJo sobbed, pulling on the long curly strands of her hair, as she tried in every single way possible not to break down, but those attempts were made in vain. Tears poured faster than rain in a lightning storm, and as Becky rushed over to comfort her, Adrian was right behind her, wrapping them both in as solid and warm an embrace as possible. He had never intended for this to happen, and as a result, he had potentially lost his best friend. All for a damn USB with the Authority's plans on it.

"Give me that god damn thing right now," Finn hissed in Adrian's ear, taking it firmly from him and launching it into the next county. "That USB is just a fucking bloody cesspool of sin," Finn said, staring down Adrian in the eye with a burning Irish ire, before walking away.

The enigmatic NXT star walked away from the increasingly gathering scene, full of fire trucks, ambulances, damage control crews, and rescue teams when something peculiar caught his eye. Putting his hood on his head, he hid behind a pickup truck as he watched a rather tall 7 footer and a guy rather big for his size meet up. Interesting indeed, as he instantly recognized the seven footer as...Kane? He wasn't too out of earshot, as he listened in.

"I knew I did the right thing confiding in you to help me find that USB, and in the process, exact a little revenge on those NXT weasels," Kane exaggerated, laughing a bit like the old monster in himself was used to. The rather large wrestler smirked, rubbing the bridge of his nose where a cut used to be.

"Like I said, it's no problem. I take out Sami Zayn, get your USB thingy back, and capture the NXT title in the process," the wrestler said, dusting his hands that were black with soot. Maybe he had started the fire, Finn presumed.

"Pleasure doing business with you, Mr. Kevin Owens," Kane said, getting into the truck that Finn was hiding behind as Finn quickly rolled into some bushes. As Kane drove off, following his tracker for the USB, Kevin smirked. "Pleasure's all mine," he smirked, walking off in his own direction.

* * *

**Hyatt Regency**

The Authority always found a way to win and quite frankly Sasha was starting to believe that it was the only way of life. Maybe if she couldn't beat them she would become a neutral ally with them.

Said no one ever.

Sasha had enough and so did everyone else, but naturally she wouldn't get along by just standing around and doing nothing.

So a little snitch named Mikey decided that he wanted to record the hot make-out session she had with Roman earlier this week.

It wasn't like her picture hadn't already been out to the world so really why would she care? It wasn't a sex tape. It was hot, but it wasn't your wished for NC-17 rating that had been banned for life.

Though Sasha could just opt for Roman to deliver a devastating Superman Punch to Miz's teeth, this was something The Boss wanted to handle her self.

She didn't need a man to hide behind before and sure as hell wasn't about to start doing that now.

"You sure she's here?" Sasha said lingering through the back hall of the hotel. Summer gave a slight nod of assurance.

"Yup," she said glancing at her phone, "that room right there." Summer reached into her bag and pulled out a tightly wrapped item. "I thought you may take use of this," the blonde handed the wrapped item to Sasha who raised a brow and put it into her bag.

"I got it from here," Sasha gave a nod, "thanks again, Summer." Sasha waved as Summer quickly faded away.

Sasha stood at the end of the hallway by a single window with her arms crossed. Waiting for her prey to unknowingly walk right into her trap. The elevator door chimed and the beautiful brunette walked into the hall searching through her purse for her key card.

"Missing something?" Sasha gave a grim smile pushing off of the window. The brunette gave a confused and weary look as she gazed up to Sasha. "I'm sorry we haven't officially met, my name is Sasha Banks."

"Of course-" It was none other than the Denver native; Eve Torres who blinked her clear green eyes. "Sasha what are you doing here?"

Sasha's smile turned into a dark scowl as she glared her eyes full of vengeance at the former Divas champion. "I have a message for the Miz," Sasha slowly walked towards Eve. Eve looked around unsure of what exactly was about to transpire.

"What is it?"

Perfect advantage to take.

"Game on." Sasha charged at her, tackling her down with a spear. She delivered vicious punches to the pretty former face of the divas division. Miz wanted to play games and snitch off to the Authority.

Fine.

Sasha would show this former has-been; how bad the new Divas were and that started with her. "Your little boyfriend wants to play silly games huh?" Sasha spat on Eve as she continued to slap and punch her nose into a bloody mess.

Sasha had found out all the information she could about Miz before plotting the attack on Eve. She figured since around here you had to send a message by attacking those who people cared about the most, she took that step into that world of darkness. Eve coughed trying to get to her feet.

Sasha took a few steps back roaming her eyes over the brunette.

She dusted off her hands turning her stiletto's and walking down the hall. Taking one glance back the pain flared in veins all over again and her eyes filled with anger.

Without thought she sped back towards Eve who was barely climbing to her knees and stomped her skull into the ground.

Something so heinous, made her feel so much better.

**Thanks y'all and don't forget!**

**Pride by RontheRonin**

**Envy by MellyxBrooks**

**Revenge by XxPikasixjoyxX**

**Insanity by Cody'sfavoritexgirl**

**Baci! 3 3**


	15. Bleeding Bourbon

**Chapter 15**

**Bleeding Bourbon**

**January 24****th****, 2015**

The clamorous moans echoed throughout the Hyatt Regency as the two lustful bodies melted into each other. For the second time Sasha had found herself in the bed of Roman Reigns; all bets aside it was all her wanting it this time. The deal with Seth had fell through and her sadistic ex had decided to rat her out before the plan was finalized.

It really should have all blown up in her face, but it didn't.

Not yet at least.

They started on the balcony with a heated argument that turned into pure raw sex—which both parties had no issues with—they'd fuck before during a storm only now there was less storm and more sex.

To say if Sasha felt morally right about the situation was up in the air. She was a mess lately and had no idea how she felt about Roman. Maybe he was just a filler. Maybe she really graveled towards him more than she planned too. So much she didn't understand the feelings within herself and him.

What she really didn't understand was after everything she had done and the way she treated him, why would he even bother?

The sex was hella captivating though.

Their clothes were long gone, and they had finally made it back into the hotel room, shattering into a climax before collapsing next to each other, barely making it to the California King-sized bed.

Sasha inhaled subconsciously brushing her burgundy hair out of her face; the sunrise seeping above the large bay windows and for the time being she was enjoying until a very loud and obnoxious noise lifted her eyelids quickly. Sasha turned over to see that Roman had gotten out of the bed for how long she didn't know, but it was clear that he was talking to someone behind the hotel door. As much as she didn't want to transition herself out of Bed Island she couldn't help it. Plus it was quite a surprise that Roman was talking to his cousin, The Rock. Was he even supposed to be here? Sasha turned over and closed her eyes still keeping her ears open.

"You're bad at fake sleeping," Roman said closing the door behind him, Sasha sighed turning over and staring at him.

"Your cousin is so loud," she laughed, "Does he always have to be so dramatic?"

"It's a Samoan thing," Roman sassed back her flashing a cocky grin without warning he scooped Sasha up from the bed and hiked her onto his shoulder. "Negative..!" Sasha playfully pouted as he took them both towards the shower. After another sensual round, Roman was off for the rest of the Sunday for various media adventures and then of course the Rumble.

Sasha threw on a pair of comfortable black sweats and a long sleeve t-shirt. It was time to take advantage of doing absolutely nothing for a day. It most certainly didn't erase anything she had done the night before to Eve Torres—it was impulsive, immoral, and wrong on many accounts, but it was the only way to send a clear message lately. Everyone was out for themselves and Sasha didn't have time for a former reality TV star to be broadcasting her personal life on the WWE network. The subscribers didn't pay 9.99 for that nor was it the attitude era anymore—it just didn't fly with her. Sasha dried her hair before sliding her black glasses on to her face. Her phone buzzed blinking a bold text message.

_Attacking Eve to get your way? Applause, but I gotta give you a thumbs down for actually developing feelings for Mr. Reigns..that was NOT a part of the plan_

_-The Architect_

Sasha sighed taking her time to text back she searched her bag for her Sailor Moon blue-ray and set it from episode one. She noticed something was missing—where the hell did the dagger Summer had given her run to?

_Still keeping tabs on everything I do? Awww I miss you too -_- BTW you'll never know what I'm really feeling or what I really want, until I tell you._

_-Bo$$ton's Finest_

The NXT diva sent the message before returning to the balcony—that's where she left it, she thought; but when remembering how wild things had gotten the dagger probably made its way into the Atlantic.

Damn, she really wanted to collect those things.

A small knock on the door caught her by surprise. She didn't think anyone had seen her come into Roman's room, but apparently there were more spies in WWE than usual now days.. She could have sworn across the high-angled Hyatt view someone was watching her, but she had no time for paranoia.

She looked through the peephole before swinging the door open.

"Summer, what's going on?" she invited the blonde in. Summer took a seat on the mini couch next to her.

"Stress, frustration, and a big hot mess," Summer seemed definitely agitated with something eating at her mind. Sasha was all ears, not that she was the best to talk to when it came to all three of those categories, but no one was stable at the moment anyway.

"Oh no, Summer, what did you do?" Sasha said bracing herself Summer sighed about it before rolling her eyes.

"It's not because I feel guilty about it," the blonde rested back onto the couch, "it's because I haven't told anyone it's making me feel—urg!"

"It can't be that bad—"

"I'm the one who killed Maryse and Kelly," Summer confessed annunciating every word, Sasha's jaw dropped—not just because of what Summer had told her, but because in the midst of the conversation—the hotel door hadn't been closed all the way and a very pissed off Eve Torres was hovering over the both of them.

"Don't worry honey—I remember who you are," she fired glaring her way—the Denver native stormed her way. Time speed instantly once Eve delivered vicious slap to her face—her glasses even managed to hit the ground hard.

Maybe she deserved that. "And let's not forget your drinking problem," she added dropping two bottles of something Sasha couldn't even pronounce into her lap.

Eve delivered a few words and a nasty slap to Summer Rae before leaving the two looking blue as hell.

Karma worked in many ways and this one was obvious.

"Tell me that did not just happen," Sasha raged squeezing her fist together, "fuck her!"

Summer on the other seemed as if the words from Eve didn't faze her. She looked on for a moment before turning her attention to Sasha who had thrown both wine bottles at the ceiling.

She much preferred tequila and bourbon.

"Eve just made the biggest mistake of her life," Summer shifting into a cold stare. Sasha grimaced at her friend. Before Summer turned to leave, the blonde reached into her bag and pulled out a gleaming black dagger. "Don't lose this one this time," Summer handed the dagger to her before Sasha could ask—she shrugged throwing the thing on the bed.

There was no way she was opening that door again today.

* * *

The bitter taste lingered in the back of his throat as the tobacco smoke exhaled from his black lungs.

Considering that Kevin Owens had been smoking since he was in his teens he only assumed that his lungs were probably that color now, but he didn't give a fuck. His soul was tainted far beyond that, so why not match it up with a pack of Newport's? He dropped the minty green box to the ground and reached into his hoodie pocket pulling out another pack.

"So are we gonna clear this shit up or are you just gonna watch me smoke another pack?"

The Director of Operations, Kane replied with an expressionless look. He snapped his fingers bringing a flare to the cigarette. Owens shrugged taking a puff from the thing.

"After all these years I still don't understand how the hell you do that, but whatever."

"We can fall through with you aligning with the Authority and in the long run your benefit will be eventually earned."

"Earned?" Kevin blew the cigarette smoke carelessly, "I'm not trying to flash my resume in your face, but I've been in the wrestling world for a long ass time—I'm long due for an earning—I don't care how many veterans have first advantage among me—my tank is on empty."

"Things around here are not handed to you, Kevin," Kane said waving the hasty attitude off in a professional manner, "everyone in the Authority will be rewarded once things are in our full control."

"Nobody is fucking controlling me," Kevin snapped throwing the bud to the side, "the way I see it, you're a bunch of leeching tyrants, fuck that." Kevin grabbed a nearby trash can and launched it to the side. "The issue I wanna handle here is Sami Zayn—I'm no idiot—he made out of that apartment alive—that makes me want to vomit."

"You can vomit all you want, but that's not going to change the ways of the Authority; we made an agreement that all will comply and conform—"

"You can take your authoritarian bullshit and shove it up your beaming red ass," Kevin boiled over in anger, he wasted no time grabbing corporate Kane and letting out his frustrations by powering bombing him into a nearby dumpster bin.

Kevin had a vendetta to settle with Sami Zayn. The only question was where the fuck did he go since he didn't perish in that building?

* * *

JoJo wallowed on the couch staring at the TV screen at another episode of Monday night Raw. After the fire, JoJo had completely moved what was left of her things into Adrian's house. She was comfortable enough to trust residing with him for as long as she needed to. Meanwhile, the apartment had been under a close investigation after the fire; though it was apparent who the arsonist was; the TPD acted as if they needed to investigate for the "look."

JoJo's eye's wavered the screen and as much as she didn't want to walk down memory lane with the evolution of the Authority; she just couldn't help it. She needed answers far beyond what her dreams—memory whatever was giving her.

The murder of CM Punk lingering over head like a cloud of rain. It was starting to make her itch and her mood wasn't going to change unless she did something about it.

Then there was Sami; he had disappeared—maybe she was denial—JoJo didn't believe the fire had gotten to him. She didn't want to believe it completely yet, though things were sour as ever and it was clear what had happened when they escaped the building.

Adrian however didn't have a hint of hope that Sami was still alive, but that could have been his own disbelief as well. Either way, things weren't ever going to be normal again—

"Well I can I say we've had enough of burning buildings for the past few months?" JoJo broke the silence gluing her soft eyes to Adrian, he agreed.

"We have," Adrian said taking his eyes off the television, "we can talk about it if you want."

"I just want answers…and I want Sami back," JoJo fought off a few tears, "I just don't believe any of this is truly happening." JoJo shook her head getting up from the couch. She needed to do something to take her mind off of all the chaos. Unpacking. A few her things were saved from the fire, so she decided to unbox one. She pulled out a few favorite books of hers and bracelet; at the very bottom of the box underneath a pillow lied a rusted pipe, JoJo was baffled not remembering placing the thing into the box by any means. She raised a brow and lifted the thing into her hands.

The sounds her in her mind was the pipe hitting the ground hard. She saw Sasha's face, then her friend hitting the ground after being struck inside the building as it filled with smoke.

**Royal Rumble**

Sasha watched the last few moments of the rumble and wasn't Philly something else. Smark city central lost their fucking minds for the last three men in the ring. The Big show and Kane has used their power of course to bury the fan favorites for the now demised rumble. It was more of surprise to Sasha though, the crowd had been so anti-Reigns when last year they were hanging on a thread for him.

Weird….

IWC logic?

Sasha was a little disappointed of the reaction, but took it as it was. That's what the business was all about and it didn't matter if you liked or hated—you had to get something from the crowd or you were nothing.

The Rock's music hit and the crowd had moment of excitement, but even that was enough to hold them over for too long. So disrespectful…the Rock was probably fuming on the inside, but nonetheless his appearance was still electrifying and Roman was the 2015 Royal Rumble winner after eliminating Rusev. Sasha smiled looking at her phone for a second before someone caught her eyes.

The Architect Seth Rollins was roaming the backstage area presumably resting from his time in the ring earlier that night which was one hell of a match. Along with him was the palest chick of them all, the anti-diva Paige; they were chatting away—Sasha rolled her eyes scoffing as she turned her attention back to her IPhone.

"Such a shame," the low voice of Charlotte budged between Sasha's thoughts, she looked over to the blonde glaring at her with the no B.S. look, and Charlotte pointed towards the two, "interesting that, that use to be you…remember?" Charlotte shook her head, "now here Seth is infatuated by someone else."

"Stop it," Sasha said raising her hand to Charlottes face, "I don't want to hear your mess, again."

"I'm not trying to beef with you, Sasha." Charlotte said in her defense, "You do remember that we use to be good friends?"

"More like business partners," Sasha shrugged, "our purpose was clear from the start wasn't it?"

"You sound like him," Charlotte folded her arms, "can't you see it? You've ranked yourself so damn low to become this cold-hearted bitch."

"Oop," Sasha tried her best to ignore Charlotte's words, but her blood boiled, she took a deep breath, "are you done yet?"

"I'm trying to get through to you," Charlotte continued her ranting, "you don't even realize how much more damaged you've caused, all because of him—"

"Look, Charlotte, you've never liked Seth—whatever, I didn't care when I was with him and now that we've been done for a while I still don't fucking care."

"Which is a lie," Charlotte refuted, "I mean, even your own mother doesn't see you the same—you want to know? I talked to her and she said it's like you've become some sort of monster…what happen to the sweet humble girl? The one who had humility?"

"Shut up!" Sasha fired at the top of lungs—she echoed catching the attention of a few backstage officials who rushed over.

J&amp;J security stood between the two girls getting out their note pads looking like stooges of course. "Look this is going to be a write up,"

"Go fuck each other!" Sasha clocked the both of them upside their heads with a plate from catering. Paige who was across the hall burst into laughter; Sasha impulsively charged at the diva grabbing her by her dark mane and throwing into the janitors closet locking the door with the key hanging on the side of the mop bucket.

Sasha searched the premises moving with her impulse. Summer Rae always lingering somewhere pointed at the elevator. Of course. Seth being the Architect, enjoyed gazing off the top of a building. Following Summer's hint, Sasha took the elevator, unsure all together while the thing reached the highest level. She took the roof steps to the surface of the Wells Fargo arena immediately seeing Seth, who was gazing into the sky fazing through the no limits lifestyle he had chosen. The crispy cold air compacted around the building Seth looked to the side knowing her presence without fully turning around.

"I didn't expect you here," Seth said looking back into downtown Philly as the lights reflected the city. "What is it Sasha?" Seth said as if he was slightly annoyed.

"I need to know something," Sasha began feeling her anger and anxiety build to the point of streams filling her cheeks. Seth sighed unsure of how to respond.

"Who's set you off this time?"

Sasha laughed, wiping the tears from her cheeks as more followed. She almost wanted to slap what was left of the blonde out of his hair. "You're seriously asking me _who?_ When you're the god damn reason I can't think straight anymore?"

"Relax Sasha—."

"No!" Sasha interrupted taking a few steps towards the Architect, "you do not get to use that name with me, you know who the fuck I am!"

Finally Seth had broken from him calm demeanor. "What the hell do you want me to say?!"

"I just want the truth, Seth…what happened? We were okay weren't we…?"

"We were…" Seth trailed off into his thoughts looking away from her, Sasha followed his eyes.

"Then why are we here now? What changed?"

"You know the answer to that, I did, and I had too because I had no one that understood my intentions."

"You had me…" Sasha's voice had broken from the crying, "I had you every step of the way."

"I did and for that time you were just what I needed," Seth nodded, "but…

"…But not good enough right?" Sasha shook her head, "and now here I am looking like an idiot once again."

"No, you were just fine," Seth said sincerely, "I needed a way to distract you from the dark path I'd chosen and obviously that didn't pan out the way I hoped for things happened _people_ got involved."

"So you just gave up on us…not even a thought to talk it out with me and maybe things would be different right now."

"You're right, they could be exactly the way you wanted things to be, the way I wanted them to be with you."

"I guess now I'll never know," Sasha turned to leave about her business, she had gotten the answers at least enough.

"Wait," Seth had her arm, pulling her into his chest. The look he had was a mixture—maybe he didn't know what he was doing, but damn those passionate eyes..he hadn't looked at her like that in a long time. "There will _always _be a part of me that will love you, Mercedes,—that's the damn truth." Seth's words left Sasha beyond speechless which was fine because a half a second later his lips were crashing down on to hers. Sasha didn't know how to act; tasting him back and so wrong for everything she was doing—this defining moment she would ever have with him the last kiss hurt the most, but she didn't care.

They pulled from the kiss finally—giving one last gaze to each other; Sasha's heart was at a million beats. She stepped back from Seth wrapping her scarf around her neck and turning towards the door. She stopped, looking back for the last time.

"Seth, there's one more thing…I wanted to let you know as well."

Seth gave a slight nod heading towards the NXT diva he grabbed her hand in a gentle gesture. Sasha responded lightly as the tears in her eyes had cleared her facial expression had become rigid and she was cold all over again.

"This love story is only ending, because I say it's over," Sasha seethed through her teeth reaching into her back pocket. The black dagger that she had gotten from her friend glowed in her right hand before being driven right into Seth's gut.

**Thanks for reading! And Hey! Check out the connecting stories you won't regret it!**

**Pride by RontheRonin**

**Envy by MellyxBrooks**

**Revenge by XxPikasixjoyxX**

**Insanity by Cody'sfavoritexgirl**

**Baci! 3 3**


	16. Catch Your Breath

**Chapter 16**

**Catch Your Breath**

**Part 1**

Although she wasn't exactly a stranger to the cold and frosty weather that often made its way into the northeast; Sasha was glad to finally be back in her home away from home, in the bright and hot Sunshine state Florida. Not only that, but after two years of finally stashing her savings she had made while down in NXT, she managed to put together enough funds to buy one of the cars of her dreams: a 2013 Nissan Ultima.

The fresh new car smell was revitalizing, rather than being cramped up in somebody else's rental car. Finally, she had her own vehicle that she could finally call her own and with that car, she could drive herself all over Florida to wherever she wanted to go without having to constantly call up a ride much to anybody's dismay.

Cruising down the highway with John Cena's rap album on full blast, no shame whatsoever, Sasha began to notice that traffic was unusually quiet for around this type of hour in the morning. Spotting a lone road that led off of the highway and into her neighborhood, Sasha immediately swerved, cutting off an old lady and her small minivan to make it into the lane. As she rolled down the road and into the neighborhood to her apartment, she couldn't help but feel that something was missing.

A _really big something._

The fact that construction trucks were everywhere, with dirt being tossed and loud noises abound, it couldn't have been clearer to the Boss of NXT, but when she finally found out what all the fuss was about, she wanted to scream her head off until it could explode.

"WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED TO MY PLACE?!" Sasha threw a fit cursing under her breath like no other. Her things were gone except for everything she had in her car at the moment. All of memorabilia and collections were gone—even her damn cat. How the hell did this happen? What the fuck did Finn and Becky do? Have an Irish fire show?

Sasha grabbed her iPhone 6 and quickly called Becky trying to relax her expression at the construction workers who stared at her like she was bat-shit crazy. She waited a few minutes as the workers threw the blackened debris around, something about this probably had to do with—Becky answered after one ring.

"I'm at the performance center, meet me here," she murmured, Sasha lifted a brow.

"Well hello to you too," Sasha hung up the phone and jumped back into her car. Before driving away she took another look at the construction workers who seemed to have some sort of logo on the back of their shirts—too familiar. Sasha shrugged speeding away.

When she arrived Becky was outside waiting for her. Sasha didn't really feel like smiling for miscellaneous reasons and oh yeah because her apartment had perished.

"So, can you tell me what the heck happened?" Sasha asked crossing her arms, "tell me it wasn't grease fire?"

.

"Hey!" Becky said in her defense, "it wasn't that this time! It was that confused freak Kane!"

"What the fuck?" Sasha shook her head in disbelief, "I can't even leave for a week without the Authority planting some fucking bomb in my apartment—they must really be angry with me."

Sasha flashed back to the night she stabbed Seth. "Maybe I'm speaking too soon?"

"Oh god, what did you do now?" Becky gave her friend the look of disappointment, Sasha shrugged.

"Everything I did was…fair…to say the least—look, I need to know if JoJo—"

"She's fine, with Adrian," Becky gave a nod, "lucky you didn't have to deal with this while travelling with the main roster."

Sasha blinked a few times before responding. "Did you just say that JoJo is with Adrian?'

"Yes…she's staying with him for now."

"Not Sami?" Sasha was baffled, "where is he?"

"Haven't seen him since the fire," she answered, "he disappeared right after."

Sasha took a moment to rub her throbbing forehead. She wasn't even home for two-minutes and her head was about to explode. But really what she else was new? This place was full of fuckery beyond anyone's control.

"That's terrible..." Sasha was uncertain about how to feel about Sami 'disappearing'—he was good at the going incognito thing. What could he be up to now if he didn't blow up with the apartment building?

"You think?" Becky said as the two continued into the performance center. "Seems like war with the Authority is starting to make its way through NXT."

"It was inevitable," Sasha rolled her eyes, "power with them never has an end and with Hunter owning pretty much the land this building lays on…it's not like we can avoid it."

"It only got out of hand once you decided to play twister with Roman Reigns," Becky took a sip of her water glaring to the side. Sasha cocked her head back snapping evil eyes at her friend.

"Did you mean to say that with so much attitude?" Sasha sassed back grimacing, "you are so crabby today."

"And you aren't?"

"I just came home to no home—so seriously I have a reason to be,"

Becky sighed. "Just like you have a reason to drag everyone into your plethora of problems?" She folded her arms.

"Excuse me? No one said you had to be involved with them," Sasha pointed out, making Becky scowl.

"You came to me first, begging for an ally after your little group fell to pieces," she fired.

"I told you _exactly_ what you were getting into and you could have walked away," Sasha seethed before shoving Becky into the wall, "if you're so sick of it now you can get the hell out of my sight!"

Becky quickly retorted with shove of her own, nearly sending Sasha over a table nearby. Sasha charged at her ready to break into a brawl, but was stopped by one Finn Balor who prevented the fight from escalating. "Enough!" Finn shielded between the two. "You two are supposed to be friends."

"More like business partners," Becky spat swinging at Sasha; Finn barely caught her. "Isn't that what you said?!"

"Damn right, bit—," Sasha screeched before Finn could interject again.

"You two seriously need to relax," Finn demanded, "the pressure is on—don't let it get to you."

Sasha calmed a little still grazing a small glare at Becky. "You're right, we can just wait until the Fatal Four-way, so I can beat your ass."

"If you two are going to be living with me, I suggest you find a solution," Finn started, "the Authority will thrive on every negative rage that develops between you—they'll be getting exactly what they want."

"Living together?" Sasha raised a brow as Finn pulled her to the side.

Becky rolled her eyes. "Oh, I forgot to tell her."

"No, No," Sasha refuted, "Fuck that—"

"And where are you going to stay?" Finn inquired as Sasha took a moment to think; she looked to the side and pulled the lose strands of her hair out of her face.

_Where_ was question she didn't even think about that? "It'll be very temporary," Sasha cursed beneath her breath, "it's not like I'll be there half the time anyway."

"You're welcome," Finn said letting out a laugh and shaking his head. Sasha's lips formed into a hard line.

"What the hell are you laughing at?"

"I don't think there's a day that I haven't seen you fighting or angry," Finn quipped helping her off the table.

"Or drunk," Becky added shrugging their way.

"I've been light on the last one," Sasha folded her arms to keep from showing her friend her favorite use of sign language. Finn still stood between them letting the storm fade. He was right, the pressure was on for the two friends, not only because of the Authority's adventures, but because of the fatal four-way they had in a week. Sasha knew that Becky, Bayley and Charlotte yearned for that gold more than anything; and it was going to be a blood feud come February 11th.

Point given that there was no tags or alliances within this match. Every woman had to claw for themselves and their odds were all cut down immensely; and Sasha knew all too well that things were changing because in a business like this—it had too. Winning that women's championship would be the light she needed to feel complete again, not only to prove that she was better; but that all of trouble she had been going through was worth something. All the real reason why she wanted to be in the WWE

And to think she had been losing her path.

Not by a long shot.

Sasha slid away from Finn placing her small frame back in front of Becky. "I'm sorry," she said nodding her head, "I was out of line for attacking you."

"I was out of line too," Becky relaxed. For now things could settle down between the two friends, but come next week, that morality would be tested.

**February, 11th 2015**

JoJo sat on the elongated couch feeling her skin crawl—she never did well in small places and considering that she had spent about a month in one didn't make it any better. The tall blonde psychiatrist embellished every word she said; giving her defining solutions that may not even work, but what scared her the most was the amount of time she was taking to log information or whatever the hell she was doing. The blonde's attention was glued to the notepad for a few more moments before her observant hazel eyes were back at JoJo's.

"Usually when someone dissociates, they're developing a coping mechanism—a way to deal with something without actually being there—an escape."

"I don't see why I would ever do that," JoJo leaned back trying to gain some comfort from the stiff couch.

"You may not want to remember," the doctor pointed out the uncanny obvious, "the only way to rid the dissociation is to find the root of the problem and from there we would start the mending process."

JoJo cleared her throat and nodded. "Okay." Really she wanted to let out scream; because what was there to mend? Other than Sami missing; what could cause her mind to shift personalities all together? In no way did JoJo even slightly believe it. Why would she change all together to commit a murder? Killing wasn't in her; she couldn't even imagine.

Avoiding that truth overall during the session was necessary—not that the lady didn't already think she was untreatable mess. JoJo took a deep breath before glancing at the clock above her.

"You have a show to get to don't you?" Marissa said. Right. That was her name. Marissa.

"I do," JoJo said reaching for her purse, "thank you." JoJo said gathering her things and pulling the stiff door open. She met with the gaze of Adrian Neville who leaned next to the door, probably anxious as ever by now. He held out his hand taking JoJo by the waist, as the high flyer led the young songstress out of the doctor's office and to his car.

"How was your session?" Adrian asked, tossing away the wrapper of a granola bar he had just finished, There seemed to be severe bags under his eyes lately, especially since JoJo had moved in with him temporarily for the time being after her apartment complex burned down completely thanks to the Authority. Either a lack of sleep or insomnia had apparently set course in Adrian's system, but he seemed to be holding his own.

"It was alright. The doctor was nice and everything and she at least seems to be know what she's talking about, unlike that last quack," she explained, as Adrian opened up the passenger door for her and chuckled. "Good to know at least. I'd hate for one of these docs to hypnotize you into some blind sheep or big dumb buzzard," he said, as JoJo put on a small smirk.

"Yeah, wouldn't want that," JoJo managed a slightly wider smile when Adrian turned to look at her, as they drove down the highway and into Full Sail's parking lot, before it became too crowded. The show had a lot to live up to as far as expectations were concerned, and with the number one contendership on the line tonight, Adrian would have to pull out all the stops to defeat Finn Balor, JoJo knew for sure.

Sighing to herself before Adrian opened the door, she reached out and placed a palm on his shoulder. "Adrian, do you really think that Sami is gone? I want to keep hanging on to hope that he's still out there somewhere, waiting to strike when the time is right. They're having a match with his title on the line for pete's sake…"

Adrian got back in the car, heavily breathing to himself again. The Sami kick she was on yet again- the one thing he was trying to avoid and not bring up, but it was always inevitably going to be brought back up, especially with the state JoJo was in lately. "Sami's a trooper, and he's a fighter JoJo. If I know him, he's probably plotting some move against Kevin or the Authority or something," he said, "but even if he's not truly with us anymore, I'm sure Sami would want me to watch over you like a guardian devil as swiftly always as possible."

Not sure what to think of his words, JoJo pursed her lips. She really did miss Sami, but if he was truly gone, it'd just have to be an ugly reality that she would have to face. A few tears started to stream down her eyes, but Adrian quickly wiped them away from her face and tilted it upward to face him.

"Now, now, there will be none of that now alright? I promise you JoJo, as long as I'm still breathing, I'm not gonna let a single damn bad thing happen to you, I promise," he said with a large hint of chivalry in his voice that he didn't bother trying to hide. JoJo blinked away the rest of the water rising up in her eyes and, not knowing what to exactly feel, allowed the Newcastle native to press his lips against her and slightly lose herself in the moment as soft sensitive skin pressed up against rough, hardened skin ever so smoothly.

They continued to kiss until JoJo opened her eyes and pulled back, just in time to see Finn Balor knocking on the door to get their attention. "All the good luck kisses in the world aren't gonna help ya beat me Neville," the enigmatic superstar smirked, as he continued to head into the building with Becky Lynch not far behind him, only raising an eyebrow at a slightly embarrassed JoJo, who hustled her way out the car and quickly ran into the building, leaving a confused Neville behind.

**Undisclosed location**

Sami entered the room filled with low fluorescent lighting, he sighed heavily. He hadn't said a word to anyone since the apartment fire; he just found a way out and laid low. In essence it was something he was probably going to regret later because of the massive amount of worry he's caused, but much too worth it. He had did more digging into the Authority and Heyman's plans. The shabby desk in the middle of the room was like a college thesis final. Papers filled with information he damn near hacked the government to get. He couldn't stop. Sleep would come after his death and even before that; he was still going to fight Kevin Owens tonight. That son of a bitch could never let bygones go. Since their days traveling the world—Owens always seemed to have some lingering vendetta against Sami. It made him scoff every time and now it was pissing him the hell off.

"Fucker!" he said throwing a pen across the desk as it made a chattering noise. He picked up his phone and squeezed his tired eyes at the text message.

_Sami…please tell me you're okay….please…_

_-JoJo_

Sami dropped the phone down disregarding any text message he received. He understood that JoJo missed him and he wanted to talk to her, but now just wasn't the time—too much needed to fixed; he needed all the information he could get to take down any power hungry animal. He knew in the meanwhile Adrian would protect her—a friend he could trust.

Sami deleted the text to avoid all distractions. To make it a little easier he just set an alarm for himself and put the thing on airplane mode.

His eyes wavered over the hundreds of papers embodied with scattered information.

It was like solving damn riddles.

* * *

An eventful night it was going to be indeed and the anxiety around Full Sail University was high. NXT stars were warming up, some getting into their feelings and meditation, while others managed to get yelled at by Bill DeMott for not showing up to the mandatory meetings. Hunter was as usual-keeping things organized and up to par. Kane took a few moments to lead some of the stars into a meeting room.

Yeah—that anxiety was a bit too high—everyone was battling the angst of getting the win their hearts desired, but right now that wasn't exactly what the Irish NXT diva and superstar were thinking.

In fact they only had one thing on their minds; blurred, uncanny, and—

Just fucking horny.

Becky followed Finn into the empty locker room as eyes were easily distracted; no one noticed them at all.

Good because they wasted no time. Finn pushed Becky against the lockers hard the sound blasted a hard echo as their lips fell into a rage battle. Just hunger. Too late if they were being too loud because they were fucking either way.

Finn ripped off the thin fabric from Becky's torso exposing her breast and hiking her up as her legs wrapped around his waist tighter than a boa constrictor. The Irish red in the room seemed to be raging hard as the head banging NXT diva reached her hand into Finn's pants and started to jerk him off with fiery passion.

The enigmatic superstar wasn't to be outdone however, not being afraid to bear his teeth as if they were fangs, rolling the nipples of Becky's breasts between his rows of teeth as if they were train wheels rolling along on a high speed, wired up train tracks with grit and Irish fury. The twisted moans and oomph's coming from Becky made Finn smirk just a little bit more widely than humanly possible, almost like a demon.

And as if he was a demon possessed, he started to growl as he planted deep and gory kisses all over her throat and under her chin while her nails dug deeper into his skin. Like the pain egged him to go on even more. Pressed up against the locker with no room to move, Becky reached out and pulled Finn's shirt over his head and tossed it to the other side of the locker room with quick haste, as her legs tightened their grip around his waist even more.

"Let it loose," she hissed through a thick whisper, Irish accent completely present as Finn smirked. "I want war," she continued to huff as Finn displayed an even wider smirk than before. "You didn't even give me a chance to get my war paint on," he proclaimed, but Becky had already reached for the drawstring on his tights and watched as they fell to the floor with ease.

"So that's how it's gonna be, yeah?" he arched an eyebrow, before the low growling noise erupted from his throat once more. Using his hands like they were claws, he stretched apart Becky's shorts until they left a wide open hole for Finn to sink something into, and it wasn't his mouth into potatoes either.

Without further ado, he proceeded to slip his member into her twitching core. Hard. The Irish blood still pumping furiously through their veins and neither giving the other the satisfaction of slowing down or giving in. Drilling into her raw, the screams of pleasure ricocheted off the walls—and if anyone didn't hear them before they sure as hell were about to hear something.

Finn pulled out of her gleaming lustful grin across his expression. Becky's heart rate was sky high and they were both on edge; perfect timing to finish session.

Finn slammed his hard veiny cock back into her digging into her waist hammering into her clenching core until he couldn't control it, he let out a roar as they both climaxed simultaneously.

They collapsed to the ground as every limb in their bodies went completely numb. Their minds needed time to recuperate as well and Finn looked to the bright lit ceiling cursing positively under his breathe. Oh the pleasure high he was on right now it was enough to distort his thoughts all together because when he glanced to the side—the smiling eyes he saw were not those of Becky Lynch, but of Sasha Banks. He shook his head and squeezed his eyes shut bringing him back to reality.

* * *

Sasha stared at the catering table wondering if the damn thing was going to start walking. She couldn't have anything on the table right now anyway because her match was soon.

Like next soon.

And she was about to vomit.

Nerves before a match were natural—you wouldn't be human if you didn't have them. Sasha wanted that title so much, but damn all four of them would bleed for it they had too. The Boss of NXT looked in the mirror fixing her hair. Not an ounce of make-up could make her win that title, but she guessed she had to look good for the camera.

All of this had to mean something.

"Don't freak out on me now," the swoon voice caught her off guard, she turned her body from the mirror seeing a very handsome Roman Reigns smiling at her. He wore all dark colors with his leather jacket and jeans. That perfect face aligned and defined with his hair pulled back into a low bun.

He was so rude to be so good looking.

"I'm not," Sasha looked back into the mirror and added more mascara, Roman gave a slight laugh. "Come on baby girl you don't have to pretend around me."

"I know," Sasha let out a heavy sigh and slouched back into her seat, "I just don't if I can—,"

"You can," Roman cut her off in the most polite way possible, "doubt is what keeps you from winning."

"Sure?" Sasha laughed tilting her head, "I don't doubt myself. Ever."

Roman threw his hands up giving a quick nod. "Indeed you don't, when everyone is watching you, but what about up here," he caressed her hair gently making her heart skip. A few moments of them staring into each other's eyes were interrupted. Sasha grimaced looking over Roman's shoulder—he quickly turned around to see the COO conspicuously staring them down. Sasha's eyes glanced at her phone—it was time for the fatal four-way.

"I'll see you soon, Ro," she said almost walking away too quickly—she paused turning back to Roman and meeting him for a quick kiss on the lips. Hunter fumed.

As soon as Sasha had disappeared behind the curtain for the match, the COO immediately stormed over to the Powerhouse, who had a slight smirk on his face. That look immediately transformed into disdain when Hunter bucked his big ass nose into his face. Surely people knew the rule about personal space right?

"What the hell do you think you're doing huh? Romancing one of the developmental talents," Hunter said, completely pissed at Roman's actions, or a slight lack thereof. Roman only offered a small laugh as he stared down his boss and cracked his own neck. "What the hell does it look like I'm doing? Paying a little visit to someone close down here, not that it's any of your business anyway," Roman shrugged, ready to walk away, but the Game spun him back around.

"I don't think you understand. NXT is mine, which means everything that goes down here gets reported back to me, and whatever business you claim to have down here automatically becomes my business too, you got me? I know all about those explicit photos she sent several months ago. Of all people, they had to be sent to you," Hunter fumed, shaking his head even more before looking back into the eyes of Reigns.

"You're playing with fire Roman, and you're about this close to getting burned. Keep messing around with her, and you're gonna find out firsthand what real pain truly feels like," he warned, and Roman began to slowly grit his teeth. "And you're this close to me knocking your ass out," Roman said, cocking his fist like he was ready for battle.

"That sounds like a threat to me Roman. Quite frankly, I don't like threats being made to me and since I have complete power over NXT and over these premises, I'm gonna have to ask that you see your way out of this building before they place you under arrest," Hunter said, with the most corporate defense response possible. At least six or seven security guards stepped in from behind the COO, some with unnecessarily loaded up dart guns and others with high voltage tasers.

"Now Mr. Reigns, if you don't mind taking your leave," Hunter said with a smirk as he and his forces stared down Roman. This was downright bullshit—the Game had pretty much had the university police and local authorities under his thumb, as evidenced by the Authority "A" symbol being brandished all over their uniforms.

Roman looked from the cops, to Triple H, to the TV where he saw Sasha turn her submission into a pin for the three count to officially win the title. He really wanted to stay—he wanted to spend the night with the Boss of NXT and celebrate her title victory, but with a high stakes match coming up at Fastlane against Daniel Bryan and a WWE title shot on the line to main event WrestleMania, he couldn't afford to risk spending time in a jail cell or drawing any negative attention onto himself.

"Still haven't made up your mind? Well maybe this should speed things along," Hunter claimed, placing his hands into his suit pockets. A couple of minutes passed by in silence, and just when Roman was about to say something, a bloodcurdling scream was let out.

A Samoan, bloodcurdling stream.

Roman glared at the COO, now fully aware that he had set this entire plan up the moment he found out he would be at the NXT special. "When this is over, I'm gonna kill you," he barked, before shoving his way through the guards and out the back door to get to what could have been some type of intentional assault on one of his family members.

As Roman cleared out, Hunter smirked, taking off his suit jacket and revealing a brand new Sasha Banks t-shirt, merchandise he had personally made for her that nobody had yet to see, not even Sasha.

Surprise indeed.

* * *

The four of them were in the ring. Bayley was more aggressive than ever taking shots she had never done before. Sasha had to watch out for her indeed even temporarily teaming with Becky to take out the hugger lover.

Becky so strong as usual didn't forget to show Sasha her savvy background from her earlier days. That t-bone suplex knocked the wind out of her sending her outside the ring. Doubting Charlotte's ability would be incredibly stupid. Yes her moves were flashy and easy on the eye, but they were damn effective and hurt like hell.

After knocking the hell out of Sasha; Becky had the upper hand with Bayley. Sasha quickly rolled back into the ring breaking them up and throwing each of them on the second and third turnbuckle, stomping them both into the mat. They rolled out of the ring for a breath of fresh air, but Sasha wasn't having that—the Boss of NXT dived outside the ring taking them both out. Not too long after, Charlotte did a diving press of her own taking out the three of them. Disparity was at an all-time high right now.

Charlotte and Sasha were back in the ring and using Charlotte as a weapon; Sasha dodged her spear sending her straight into Becky—she was out of sight again.

Sasha snatched Charlotte by her blond locks mocking her taunt as the crowd gave a mixed reaction. She went for the bankrupt, but was quickly reversed by Flair with a twisting neckbreaker of her own that took both of them down.

The crowd was hot and Sasha could see the black and white motion running through her head. Desperate wasn't doing it for her.

She held on as if this was her last moment—it felt like it. Sasha wrapped her hands around the face of Charlotte pulling her into the Bank Statement. "TAP!" Sasha pulled Charlotte back bending her like a pretzel. Charlotte wasn't giving up, but the excruciating pain would set in eventually as long as Sasha could keep her move locked in. Out of the corner of her eye Bayley had gotten back up to the rope; Sasha quickly let Charlotte out of the hold and delivered a swift kick to Bayley's face—she landed on Becky knocking them both out clean.

Right back into the Bank Statement, Sasha applied even more pressure as Charlotte desperately crawled towards the rope. "NO!" Sasha pulled her back just enough as her hunger for the gold became famine, Charlotte reached for the rope weakening.

Sasha had never seen Charlotte so weak. Gravity going against her while losing consciousness, but she was unwillingly to tap—Banks already knew that, but now that was all she needed was weakness from her opponent.

Sasha only hoped it would work. She sucked the energy right out the former BFF and now all she needed was three seconds to finally take what she craved.

Sasha flipped Charlotte over wrapping her legs around one of her arms and pulling her over into a crucifix pin.

**One.**

_And all the things they said:_

_Look, girls like you don't belong in this business. What are you barely over a hundred pounds? What's your race? You're look isn't exactly marketable._

**Two. **

_The only way she knew to cope: _

_There was once a time in my life when nobody believed in me. Nobody was willing to give me a chance. _

_I'm telling all of you now that this is meant for me, I'll show you all._

**Three.**

_The day her life shifted for good: _

_Mercedes,_

_We like what you bring to the table and we would love to offer you a developmental contract down here in Florida._

**Now.**

"And your new NXT Women's Champion!" JoJo's tone zeroed in loud and clear as the warm smile formed onto her face, "Sasha Banks!"

She cried blood. The feeling was beyond overwhelming as the referee handed the title to her. She didn't mean to snatch and ravage for it, but damn she wanted it so bad.

And now it was hers.

She cradled the thing in arms like holding a newborn for the first time. Sweet, smooth, and almost unreal. She dared someone to take it away from her. Charlotte stood there in shock, but proud. She couldn't believe as much as Sasha could. The old friend held out her hand with sincerity. No matter what you fight for when times get rigged, your best friend becomes your worst enemy, but the outcome was always bittersweet.

Charlotte pulled Sasha into a hug and even through all the hatred Sasha didn't refuse her.

Back to business Charlotte gave the former BFF a slight shove. This moment in time was great for the celebration, but they would always have that slight animosity.

Sasha gave her a shove back taunting her by holding the title up high.

Her title.

**Thank you all for reading! Remember this was part 1 of the Chapter! Didn't want to overwhelm you all! Things are getting chaotic or staying that way it seems. Keep your eyes ready! In the next chapter we will continue with the NXT Championship match. Will Sami show up? How will things pan out backstage? Oh and we have some more quite shocking (disturbing) surprises.**

**Thanks for all of you who have been reading since day one! And my new readers welcome and enjoy and don't forget to drop a review if you have ten seconds **** share with friends too!**

**Pride by RontheRonin**

**Envy by MellyxBrooks**

**Revenge by XxPikasixjoyxX**

**Insanity by Cody'sfavoritexgirl**


	17. Catch Your Breath II

**Chapter 17**

**Catch Your Breath: II**

**Thanks again, sorry for the long wait but enjoy had a hectic couple of weeks, but enjoy!**

**#GiveDivasAChance**

JoJo nervously stood in the middle of the ring, her teeth were chattering and she was pretty sure that she was going to stutter all over her words for the main event. The grungy rock music hit as the aggressive Kevin Owens stormed down the ramp; the crowd was in a great shock value as the intensity between the feuds had formed, all starting with the vicious attack that Owens lead on Sami back on December 11th. Having no idea if Sami would be in the flesh tonight; JoJo jumped out of her black and white thoughts and announced as queue. Kevin with his 'give no fucks' attitude glared in the middle of the ring waiting for his foe to show up.

As if he knew it was going to end today either way.

The upbeat music of Sami Zayn's filled the arena; and time for a few seconds stood still. JoJo held her gut, trying her best not to gasp as Sami appeared from behind the curtain. The only thing that had taken her aback was the person who walked down the ramp was different; not the usual positive and energetic sway that Sami danced to—this time he was pissed off, careless, and ready to fight.

A whole new game to play when someone who showed just enough gratitude towards you also had the ability to stab you in the back.

The referee raised the title high as the bell rang. The two men circled each other before Owens slid out of the ring letting out a cocky laugh. Sami scoffed motioning Owens to get back into the ring—he indeed did; mocking him before sliding back out again. Sami raged; wasting no time he bounced off the rope, diving onto Kevin with a high octane moonsault.

Now that got his attention.

The two were back into the ring; breaking into a brawl. Owen tossed Sami into the turnbuckle twice—knocking the air from his lungs. Sami was able to retain his offense; using his best ability to weaken Owen's, but that wasn't happening so easy. Owens' hit Sami with a cannon ball, making his skull bounce off the turnbuckle again. Pain definitely wasn't stopping Sami as he put it all on the line again, spring boarding off the rope, and catching Kevin outside the ring; the process was either too fast or too soon—it took a lot out of him.

JoJo was on the edge of her seat watching with broad eyes. If she knew better than anyone else—Sami was distracted. A lot could be on anyone's mind during such an important match, but JoJo could see more than that…something was picking at him—he wasn't completely there.

Sami's head hit the ramp hard enough to echo through the Full Sail crowd, the petite announcer jumped trying to stay calm as the referee checked on him. Sami shook it off, disoriented and all as he wobbled back into the ring. Owen's wasted no time unleashing his hatred on Sami with delivering several punches to the weakening enemy. Owens backed down just for a moment before delivering a powerful pop-up power bomb.

But one wasn't enough.

Owen's continued his brutal attack on Sami—delivering multiple power bombs. The faces of the NXT universe said it all as many were in shock as Sami had become beyond the point of unresponsive. JoJo cringed, covering her eyes at the brutal attack. The referee rang the bell as the crowd stood in awe. The blank stare in Owen's eyes shifted to the most awkward hint of joy as he celebrated winning the match. Not even a little remorse for his former friend.

Immediately following the match; JoJo rushed backstage to check on Sami. At any other time she wanted to ask him a thousand questions—right now was probably the worse. JoJo swiftly got by the officials into the training room where Sami was being examined. He was so visibly concussed; and even then he pushed to refuse medical attention.

"Sami…" JoJo murmured as Sami struggled to keep his balance.

"JoJo…" he said squeezing his discouraged eyes shut, "now is really not a good time,"

"I know," JoJo nodded, "I'm sorry about your match," she tried her best to fight back tears, and "I didn't know you were going to be here tonight—we've been looking for you…."

"I'm here," Sami snapped throwing the doctor off of him once and for all, "I just lost the most important thing to me," he ignored the lingering pressure from the concussion, "now is really not the time to go into the you've been missing me story."

"We thought we lost you, Sami!" JoJo's tears turned into a slight anger, "they had people looking for you….your me…your family."

"I didn't want to be found!" Sami knocked some of the medical equipment to the ground. JoJo shook her head running her hands through her curly hair.

She tightened her lips turning to leave the medical room, but something made her look back. It didn't seem fair that she spent all this time worrying sick about Zayn and even through her own mind boggles as well. "You know Sami," JoJo said glaring into his eyes, "Adrian has given me more attention in the past couple of weeks than you _ever _have."

* * *

It was a wonderful night indeed for the Boss of NXT—she had just won the NXT women's title from Charlotte when all of the odds were against her. The moment she waited for her whole life had finally made its way into reality. Sasha smiled gleaming at the title was now hers. Looking back into the mirror, she cleaned the running mascara from her eyes and fixed her make-up with fresh coat. All of it was surreal and too much had happen to get there, but it was worth it. It made her pout a little that Roman wasn't roaming around backstage any more—though not surprising she figured something had come up.

She would shoot him a text in a little bit. The vibe was all over again as she went back into the backstage area to take more post match photos. She pulled a black shirt over her torso and fixed her hair before grabbing her title and heading out of the locker room.

Sasha was met by a glare of double trouble as the Bella-Kardashians met her half-way down the hall. Out of a little respect; she put on the fakest smile which quickly faded as she passed by the twins.

Further down the hall was an elated Kevin Owens, who had just won the title from Sami. Guess he made it back from the goonies or where ever the hell he went after all. Sasha knew this would probably be a night killer for JoJo depending on how she took it; at least Sami was back.

As soon as Sasha sent her text to Roman; none other than the COO and sole owner of NXT appeared from behind the curtain. Sasha sighed ignoring the annoying feeling and focused on what was really important. Hunter stepped her way holding out his hand. "Congratulations," he said in a professional manner; Sasha morosely took his hand. "I think it's fair to say that you performed well out there."

"Thanks," Sasha replied flatly, "but I have many reasons to believe you don't mean that."

"It would be a mistake to say that now," Hunter gave a slight nod, "you've proven that title belongs to you," he pointed at the belt, "and through all the trials and hard work you've put in and gone through, finally you get what you want." Hunter opened his suit jacket and revealed a black and gold shirt with bolded letters of the trade marketed phrase—referenced to her.

Legit Boss.

Her jaw dropped. Too many days had passed to know how long she had been asking about having her own line of merchandise. Finding out right after she won the title was even more ecstatic. Her doubt for a moment turned into a smile.

"I can't believe it…" Sasha was low on words, but only sunk into the feeling of all her dreams coming true.

Right from the devil's house, but really did it matter?

"And then there's just that one mistake that can make it all go away," Hunter avowed. Sasha's smile instantly dropped. "Like, Roman Reigns."

Here we go, Sasha thought to herself. It was just her luck to receive a reward on the same night she got a lecture about what was right and wrong. She almost covered her ears, completely over the bullshit.

"My talent needs to focus on the future," Hunter demanded, "Reigns merely the distraction that will bring you down while he rakes in his own success."

"I'm sure..." Sasha rolled her eyes this time. The Authority always wanted something—no everything—everything had to be in their order or they retaliated against you with threats. The few times any of this has happened they had been aggressive—even against their own. How much of any of this was Sasha going to take? Who knew? It had gone this long and although she had been pushed to the edge before; she was getting real fed up with this dirty corporate sway.

"I'm just looking out for my talent," Hunter continued his point—Sasha interrupted him without a care in the world.

"No you're not," the Boss rolled her eyes once more, "you have an agenda for ultimate power—anyone who would think otherwise would be a fucking idiot."

"That's the agenda everyone wants to believe," Hunter said, "there's so much more than just wanting power."

"Alright," Sasha snapped, "I get it, but I guess I should tell you what my new agenda is now I've finally gotten what I deserve," the Boss emphasized. "As you may be so adamant about taking my title away from me if I don't stop jumping Roman's bone—well then so be it because I'll just have to respond by making this company rain blood, and if you don't believe that, just ask Seth Rollins who nearly bled to death on the top of the Wells Fargo arena."

Hunter sneered his eyes shooting a rigid glare at Sasha. "Being insubordinate and hostile is very unprofessional—I don't know what the hell game you're playing, but—

"It's obviously your game," Sasha retorted with a brash attitude, "but obviously you've lost all your cards," Sasha took her belt over her shoulder she was tired, too happy to care about any shit she was going to get for being relenting. It was enough. The Boss was ready to call it a night.

After a few photos to throw at the WWE universe; the new NXT Women's champion said goodbye to a few colleagues. Back into the locker room, she grabbed her bag and checked her phone again just to be disappointed by no text back from Roman. Guess he really did have to disappear for the night. She looked at her phone for a minute wondering if calling him would be better.

No.

She hit the call button hoping for at least ring, but instead she was forwarded to his voicemail.

Cool.

She tossed her now heavier duffle bag over her shoulder deciding that being alone in a locker wasn't exactly—especially since the last time she was—she was ever so gracefully clocked upside the head by—who even knew. Just as she left the locker room she again passed by the Bella's who were this time talking to the jeer diva Bayley—only this time she was a little less jeer after the loss. It certainly didn't seem like the Bella's were doing anything to make it better.

And Sasha confirmed that when Brie Bella delivered a stiff kick to Bayley's gut. Sasha raised a brow, shook her head, and put on her shutter shades.

She was taking her championship and going home—or her new home for the time being.

"NXT divas seem to have it all don't they?" Nikki said a little louder as they capitalized on the attack on Bayley, it stopped Sasha dead in her tracks.

"Isn't that right?" Brie interjected, "their treated like they're going to be some sort of royalty when or if they even pull over to the main roster."

"No one will be able to outshine the Bellas of the Brawl," Nikki kicking Bayley back down to the ground who struggled to get up, "especially not this little ugly horse," she snorted before letting out a wad of spit into Bayley's face. They're all just puppets, tangled all up in the Authority's strings," both twins laughed simultaneously like haggard witches. Sasha had had enough.

She wasn't the best when it came to stuff like this, but this was full out disrespect. And even Bayley didn't deserve this treatment.

Sasha charged down the hall stepping between the Bellas and Bayley. "Is there really a reason y'all need to be doing this?"

Brie revealed what seemed to be a surprised look on her face. "Sasha…why are you so concerned with this loser? You are the only real diva success from NXT…and maybe Charlotte if she gets any real glow in her face."

"Oh shut up! We all deserve a spot," Sasha fired up in Nikki's face, "you're wasting your time trying to prove which group of divas is better. As if things weren't already as mess around here with the company."

"Look, Sasha, this is all business—"Nikki emphasized holding out her hands, "we've been overshadowed by the NXT divas far too long—we go out there and we don't even get a chance to showcase our talent—while here you guys are practically given all the luxuries and limelight."

Sasha couldn't agree more. Yes the NXT divas were given the time and all of the resources they needed to be better than pretty faces, but that didn't mean that any of the girls here thought they were better.

"Yeah and I get it, I want all of us to be able to get that fairness, but god do you have to be so high tail about it attacking Bayley isn't going to solve the issue."

"Are you sure you even care?" Brie gave a right hook to Bayley busting her nose red, "you never gave a shit about Bayley—you've done no better than us."

"Yeah I mean come on Sasha what does it matter?" Nikki started, "you've always hated this loser and now you're the champion."

"And don't forget the legendary Snoop Dogg's cousin," Brie smiled, "once on the main roster they'll put her right on total divas with the top Bellas—right in the fame circle."

"I would rather stay here than become aligned with you Bella-Kardashian one and Bella-Kardashian two—"Sasha swung her belt at the noggin of Brie Bella knocking her out cold. "Shouldn't you be worried though, Nikki? Now that you no longer have John Cena to climb anymore how relevant will you really be?"

Nikki ran at the NXT diva, but was halted by the bloodied Bayley, who had gained her strength back and threw the Bella over with a heavy German suplex.

The Bellas laid out in the middle of the Full Sail Hallway. Guess their plan didn't quite work out. Bayley was the one however, to pick up Sasha's title and hand it to her, but not until after she gave it a good stare.

"You did great tonight, Bayley." Sasha said pulling the title to her chest, "we all did."

Bayley shook her head still having the hint of discouragement fill her eyes. "You didn't have to help tonight."

"I don't hate you _that _much," Sasha gave a sly smile, "and you really didn't deserve that—" Sasha had a long way to go before waving off any of the shady things she had done herself; all of those decisions irrational and impulsive, but this one was in her very right mind.

"Thank you," Bayley let out yelp before wrapping Sasha in a tight hug.

"Gross!"

* * *

JoJo walked outside of the Full Sail arena in the sourest mood. The night wasn't exactly something to celebrate. Not fully at least as Sami lost the title and went completely out of it after his concussion. Even before that, something just wasn't right. JoJo sighed. At least Sasha had finally won the title—so there was the positive, but now JoJo was stuck on answers.

Answers about everything; but then here she was with nothing. She waited outside Full Sail for a few moments before Adrian met her. She wanted to go with Sami to the hospital, but their argument had gotten too heated to move beyond that poin t—no shit now was not a good time for them to talk. JoJo moved her attention to Adrian as the former NXT champion locked his eyes on hers. Oh. How about that kiss earlier.

"I'm sorry about your match," JoJo blurted trying to avoid that moment from earlier—not that it was horrible or anything.

"It's nothing, JoJo, Bálor got lucky," Adrian nodded in a slight dismay, "did you get a chance to speak with Sami?"

"Yeah…not exactly a good time I guess," JoJo folded her arms, "He was completely off…"

"Just give him some time and he'll be okay," Adrian captured the outlining of her face with his hands bringing their gaze even closer. JoJo gently slid away from Adrian feeling her nerves wire up again.

"What happened early, Adrian…?" JoJo murmured, "We can't do that again."

Adrian calmly grabbed both of her hands and a faint sigh. "We were caught in the moment, no worries."

The two left it at departing for the time being. JoJo was going to hang out with her best friend for a little bit before going back to Adrian's. Not that she had been itching to be super social—she didn't want to shut down completely, so the opportunity was presented. She checked her iPhone before sparking in her mind that she had left something in the college. Quickly she pushed through the double doors heading down the dim halls. Full Sail was basically a maze and as many times as she'd been in there she could never remember which room—

There it was—JoJo went into the dark music room using the flashlight app on her phone.

Dammit it was in here somewhere…

JoJo reached behind the piano finally finding her bag. Now she could get out-

Was someone playing the piano? JoJo raised a brow hearing the soft rhythmic sounds—but the room was just as empty.

At least she thought it was.

The petite diva rushed to the end of the broad room hitting the accidently hitting the light switch.

Good though cause now she could actually see.

Reluctant to take a step forward; JoJo knew now that she wasn't the only one in the room.

The man across from her had on a gray jacket with the hood covering his head, his gaze going out the window. JoJo wanting to leave as soon as possible was tempted by the blank stare of the reflection. "Excuse me?" she asked softly, but the response from the man was anything but welcoming.

His glare spiked around meeting her eyes harshly. JoJo's shifted back once she recognized the face.

And she was not blind.

CM Punk stood across from raging vengeance in his eyes, he grinned almost too grimly taking a swift step towards her. She was shaking, no words could find her fear as her doe eyes filled with moisture and her lips trembled as she fell back onto the floor.

"You found me," he seethed raising his hands in grateful way. JoJo closed her eyes shut for a few moments checking to see if this was a dream.

When her lids flipped open all she saw very confused Corey Graves staring at her like she was bat-shit crazy.

And yes she was.

"You alright, JoJo?" Corey waved his hands in front of her face, JoJo shook out of her stare and quickly nodded.

"Yea—you scared me," she muttered grabbing her bag and leaving Corey behind.

She was done with Full Sail for tonight, just done.

* * *

Sasha climbed into her still very new Nissan planning to call it at night. That was of course before she realized that she really didn't know where the hell she was going. With that in mind she sent a quick text to her new roommate for location. Guess she was calling it a night.

Out the rearview mirror she spotted a familiar figure running towards her—the small frame of JoJo running towards her car. Sasha unlocked her door letting her friend get in the passenger's seat. "You okay?" Sasha said slightly surprised at JoJo who had seemed like she had just saw a dead body.

"Not really," JoJo pulled the seat belt over her chest, "I think I'm just really out of it lately...and I got into a fight with Sami."

"You never did tell me what was going on," Sasha started up the engine, a slight knock on the window made the two divas jump. Bayley stood outside with a wide smile on her face.

"Oh lord," Sasha said unlocking the doors again, "are you riding with us, Bayley?" Sasha said flatly. Well that's what happened when you were nice for a few seconds.

"Yeah actually!" Bayley jumped into the back seat, "I wanted to know if we could all go out for some wings."

"As long as we get far away from this building," JoJo said nervously crossing her arms.

Sasha shrugged finally driving out the parking lot. "Okay, wings, then home, I have a flight tomorrow." Sasha drove a few miles down the road to the Cimmaron. The three of them went inside the crowded café immediately being greeted by Angelo Dawkins.

"Well hello stranger," Angelo directed his glance towards Sasha, "looks like you've finally returned from shade camp." His annoying voice pierced Sasha's ears.

"Don't be mad that I had better things to do," Sasha rolled her eyes, "and what have you been doing? NOT even being a good lackey to me so goodbye."

"Bitch," Angelo fired. Sasha laughed pushing aside from the old friend taking a seat at the bar. Bayley and JoJo stared at the menu for eternity while Sasha was looking at her phone again.

Still no response from Roman; which was still unsettling—where did he disappear too?

"I think I need a drink," JoJo sighed sitting on the bar stool.

"You don't," Sasha quickly refuted, "we are just here to eat and then we are leaving."

"You sure?" The familiar looking waiter added, "Tonight is ladies night—all drinks are free."

An intense feeling wallowed in Sasha's gut—the word free and drinks were very tempting.

Very.

"I'll have a two long island iced teas," JoJo ordered.

"Two?" Sasha gave a stern look to her friend, "you can't even walk after one shot."

"Free!" JoJo reminded Sasha as the waiter served her the drinks, JoJo immediately downed them. Sasha couldn't believe it.

"So how about those wings," Sasha turned her attention towards Bayley who was sipping on a margarita—oh the wings were definitely there too. "You don't drink!?"

"I'll be good after one—I promise," Bayley said. Sasha looked at the bartender who had bug eyes while waiting for her to order something.

Well she guessed the night was going to be a celebration after all.

**Thanks again for reading guys! I decided to tame it down a bit in this chapter especially with all the chaos; I hope it still delivered! Don't worry all stories have some interesting surprises coming soon!**

**Don't forget to give some love with a review and don't forget to grace your eyes with the other stories as well! **

**Oh and please don't let the movement die down! #GiveDivasAChance**


	18. The Eighteenth Chapter

**Chapter 18**

**Thanks again guys for all the feedback! Enjoy!**

_They were all handpicked. Each and every one of them. Background checked—no criminal history to get hasty over, except for a few speeding tickets. Nothing new in the modern era, but even if a few of them happened to be criminally inclined—it only had a better foundation for what he was going to turn them into._

_They belonged to him._

_In essence the old saying easier said than done would roll right into play—but for Hunter it was the opposite. It was easy to take a group yearning minds and use their hope against them. Evil or not: it worked. The success of it all were the risks they were willing to take to claim their spots at the top._

_Easy._

_Then of course you had the so called rebels that just didn't want to break. So be it. The mission to get them to transition consisted of a little more work. Solution: take everything they had until beg for anything you offered. _

_And that is exactly what the plan was for the new little bossy champion._

* * *

Back inside the bar, the bright disco lights too late after the 80's flashed rapidly—not too easy for anyone who had way to many shots. The vibrations of the rock music blared in their ears as the sound waves ricocheted off the wall. Sasha, Bayley, and JoJo didn't feel a thing however; because they were a part of that sassy group that decided that 'getting white girl wasted' was on the bucket list for tonight.

And with that, the spinning room and happy crowd dwindled away as the three of them left the café almost with their eyes closed. Bayley still managed to hug everyone good bye—even when drunk she was still so damn happy.

"I love you!" Bayley jumped over the counter immediately wrapping her arms around the bartender. Sasha laughed when reading her phone for time. It was a stupid, stupid decision to make for the night, and why she couldn't just avoid the damn stuff was beyond her. She had a flight in literally like four-hours.

Karma would come for her edges later, but now it was time to get the hell home.

The three divas tripped over each other on the way to Sasha's car. JoJo being the most wasted for once, climbed into the backseat as Bayley snagged the shotgun.

Sasha stared at her car for a few moments while her vision doubled before cursing under her breathe.

"None of us can fucking drive," she slid into the driver's seat and crossed her arms, "I'm not leaving my car here."

"Put it on auto-pilot," JoJo mumbled from the back barely able to move.

"Auto-pilot?" Bayley raised a brow, "this is a plane guys, not a car," Bayley shook her head and Sasha couldn't help, but laugh.

"Look, both of you are messy," Sasha rolled her eyes, "I'll call someone,"

But really who was going to answer at two in the morning? Everyone had disappeared for night and aka they weren't stupid enough to leave themselves hanging at the bar drunk off their ass with a brand new—

A vigorous tap on the window made the three of them jump.

"Emma, what the fuck?" Sasha hollered holding her chest, "what the hell are you doing here?"

"I had a date that um couldn't make it I guess," Emma shrugged, 'but at least I'm sober and I can drive," she said sardonically, Sasha shrugged, "sure why not, you can be my chauffer now since they're not doing anything with you on TV anyway."

"Very funny, Sasha." Emma rolled her eyes. Only Sasha was a being a little serious.

"So why couldn't your date make it?" Sasha jumped into the backseat.

"I guess he didn't want to be mean, so he rejected me politely by saying he had plans with his brother."

"Well, we all know Dean and Ro' are friends until the end," Bayley added smiling, "I'm sure he wasn't trying to shade you—"

"No, no man would give up pussy just have few beers and watch ESPN with his buddies," Sasha said boldly shaking her head as JoJo and Bayley burst into a flare of laughter, "he's definitely not that into you." The remark certainly did nothing for Emma's glum attitude.

"Thanks for being honest..." The bubbly—well not so much now, diva pulled the car into the driveway.

"I always am," Sasha grinned, "thanks for being our chauffer," Sasha cheerfully gave Emma a hug.

**A Few Weeks Later**

Sasha shifted her body as she felt the movements from the large muscular frame of Roman's. She opened her eyes easily catching the Samoan extending his arms over his head releasing a sigh as his spine adjusted followed with a loud cracking noise. As he slid out of the bed, naturally his long dark mane rested on his back and ever so gracefully his fine ass walked into the shower. Sasha swooned shaking her head—not only didn't she understand why the man was so damn beautiful, but she didn't understand why her mind made her feel so much more than she wanted too.

Not cool. No. She didn't need to feel anything.

Maybe she was just in over her head—so much happening with in the year—she wasn't thinking right, but now all of that was going to change.

She was champion—something she aimed for; for years and now she was making things happen for herself. She earned that title and that's all she needed to focus on was success.

And from the way things were spinning with Roman and his race to WrestleMania—she was pretty sure his intentions were the same; no uncertainty on that part, they had to be on the same page.

Only deep down that was just fragment of truth.

And that truth is what kept her coming back. Or boredom, one of the two.

Sasha enjoyed the last few moments of lying in bed before the rattling noise from her purse went off; she searched for the phone, swiped the alarm off and cleared off all messages. No procrastinating intentions or missing out today and as much as she wanted to oppose—she really couldn't afford the headache from drawing blanks at these meetings. Most of them being achingly pointless, being champion meant you had to act like one.

She finally rolled out of the oversized bed and pranced into the shower with Roman. After finding a way out of the time consuming predicament. The Boss of NXT jumped into her car and headed back to Florida; blasting G-dragon made the drive through traffic pleasant.

Entering the performance center and walking through the corridor for once didn't give her hives. It was peacefully silent for now as she only caught a few familiar eyes before finding the front desk.

"Group meeting with Demott," Sasha said signing the clipboard, the brunette desk attendant made a disgruntled face before shaking her head.

"All meetings with Demott have been cancelled," she shrugged removing the clipboard, "you guys will be assigned a new head trainer within the next couple of weeks."

"What happened?"

"No specifics, he's no longer with the company."

Sasha gave a slight nod before thanking the lady. Guess the day was all hers after all—only what the hell was she going to do other than workout? Making a sharp turn around the hall; she crashed into another body just as small as hers. The collision was enough to knock Sasha's bag right off her shoulder dropping her belt along with it. The tiny blonde lifted herself from the floor and Sasha gave her a blank look.

Alexa Bliss shook her head before scooping up Sasha's title and handing it back over to her. "Sorry, Sasha," she gave the belt a good gaze; Sasha laughed.

"It's okay," Sasha gave a smile that was neither sincere nor cocky, at least she was trying.

"Glad to see you're enjoying your days as champion," Alexa smiled, "I really can't wait until I get an opportunity—"

"Back of the line, blueberry." Sasha couldn't help the attitude; it was as if people thought they could just easily take it away from her.

"You don't have to get hostile," Alexa grimaced, "I was rooting for you to beat Charlotte and you did."

"Sure."

"I was," Alexa raised her chin, "but now I'm going to be the next one to take if from you—you're not the only one with dreams around here."

"Aww, Alexa," Sasha smacked her teeth, "don't I believe you're a dreamer, but unfortunately honey, the little humble attitude you wave around here isn't going to get you this title."

"And weren't you the same way before you became an insecure bitch?"

"I was," Sasha shrugged, "sweet, humble, and full of joy like you—but then that got me nowhere—I may be an 'insecure bitch' now, but I went beyond myself to get the gold and it was worth it."

"I guess it'll be all worth it when you lose it all, huh?" Sasha ignored the petite blond; simply by taking her title and leaving. Sure enough she would deal with anyone who wanted to challenge her for the gold—but really the little faerie has long way to go. At least she was bold.

"Here's a little advice, Alexa," Sasha pointed the belt lining over her engraved name, "this title comes with sacrifices and if you're not willing to make them, then you won't even come close to beating me." Sasha left those words for the blonde before continuing to the locker room to get in a quick workout; a few others decided to stay and train for a bit despite the cancellation. Enzo, Cass, and Carmella were arguing in the middle of the ring as Emma caught her attention briefly.

"You left your headlights on," Emma said zooming by Sasha.

"Is that a forehead joke?" Sasha was clearly not amused, Emma nervously laughed.

"No," Emma shook her head, "I parked right next to you—"

"Alright," Sasha sighed before running back out the parking lot.

The front of the car looked fine.

Sasha scoffed wondering what the hell Emma was talking about. But that was the least of her worries as before she could take another step, the gorging sound stomps of a heavy body crashed into her like a wrecking ball.

The impact was so sudden, driving Sasha onto her own car releasing an echoing noise as her body smacked into the hard metal. The blow winded her and had her hazy for a moment until she blinked back into her senses. She slid off her car, cursing beneath breathe as she tried to make out the person who attacked her. Sasha grimaced, flashed a baffled, but fiery look at the laughing ass across from her. Bull Dempsey, with a stupid grin on his face charged at Sasha again.

Ready this time, Sasha used her swift tactics and agility to slide over her Nissan dodging Bull into the car next to hers.

Was he crazy or what? Sasha still tried to make out what the hell was happening as she sprinted through the lot—it only occurred to her that the bullshit was far from over once another familiar face blocked her out with a clothesline from Natalya. She even did the spin with it, putting a lot of torque in her spin as well.

"Well, well, well, if it isn't the self-proclaimed "Boss" herself Sasha Banks," came the condescending tone of the Canadian grappler Natalya. The third generation Diva had been back and forth between NXT and the main roster lately, but why the hell was she attacking Sasha?

Sasha didn't get a chance to get that answer as she came to, holding her head in severe pain when she was leveled with a front dropkick from Tyson Kidd to knock the Boss flat on her back, followed by a frog splash from Buddy Murphy from off the top of Sasha's own car.

Hollowed breathing involved, Sasha struggled to gasp for air after getting nailed with a barrage of finishing moves. "Wh-what the fuck is wrong with all of you dumb asses?! Are you legit stupid?!" Sasha screamed, but the returning Emma delivered a swift kick to the abdomen, a completely flat and near emotionless look on her face. The normally exotic vibe Emma exuded was no longer present. Rather, in its place was a cold and callous vibe instead.

"It was so simple Sasha. All you had to do was follow Hunter's instructions to the T, and you couldn't even do that," Emma said, crossing her arms and shaking her head with a click of her tongue. Sasha glared at Emma and raised her eyebrows in pure frustration; of course Triple H was the one who would orchestrate an attack like this.

"Just stop fucking Roman Reigns and defend your newly won championship, and represent the NXT Women's championship with pride. But you can't even do that," Emma explained, as Sasha struggled to her feet.

That Australian bitch, she gritted her teeth.

"What I do with my life and my personal time is none of your goddamn business Emma. Not you, not the Kitty couple over there, and certainly not the megalomaniacal Authority!" Sasha screamed, clocking Nattie with her title belt and kicking Tyson Kidd square in the family jewels.

She screeched with utter hysteria, launching towards Emma, but before her nails could be dug into the Australian diva's skin to draw blood, Rhyno leveled the petite diva in midair with his patented Gore, laying out the Boston native flat on her back, as she cried out in pain.

"Don't interrupt me when I'm speaking bitch," Emma warned with complete cold tones in her voice. Sasha groaned in agony holding her back in pain as she scrunched up against a parked car, killing Emma mentally with mental daggers. She would rue the day that she fucked with Sasha Banks. Her and all of these hypocrites.

"Now where was I? Oh yeah, you being stupid. I told Bayley the other day being nice and dancing with a smile on your face will get you nowhere. I had to learn that lesson the hard way on the main roster, and look where that got me. Back here in NXT with you stupid rookies," Emma exclaimed, chewing multiple pieces of bubble gum rapidly before spitting them all into Sasha's hair while she was still trying to collect herself. Did she really just do that?

Sasha struggled to get the sticky substance out of her hair, only making it worse for herself as Emma watched with the rest of the talent, a cold smirk on her face. "I'm going to kill your kangaroo ass!" Sasha screamed, lunging towards Emma and grabbing her by the throat, squeezing it as tightly as she could.

"I hope your head explodes!" she screeched, but backup for Emma quickly arrived as Bull grabbed Sasha by her roots and tossed her aside onto the ground. Emma held her throat tightly, gasping for air as she stormed over to Sasha, locking in the Emma Lock as Sasha squirmed and turned, doing her best to escape the hold, but to no avail.

"Now you listen to me mate! Hunter offered me an opportunity to redeem both myself and my career. Not just me, but Nattie, Tyson, and a lot of others too! You should feel honored that he's proud to have you as the NXT Women's champion! For now, at least. The Shield boys are bad news. Dean is nothing but an unstable, unhinged lunatic who isn't worth the trouble that he's advertised as. I almost fell for him after he helped me out of my dilemma, but that was probably just a stupid attempt for him to get his way with me—"

"Why the hell would Dean want to hop into your kangaroo pouch dimwit? Besides, from what I've heard, you've been trying to kill the—aghh!" Sasha choked as Emma tightened the hold, trying to black out the Boss, but Sasha wouldn't give in that easily. After all, a boss always came prepared. Just as the end seemed nigh for the Boss, all of the lights in the parking lot went out, turning the area completely pitch black.

"Who turned out the lights?!" Buddy screamed in his Australian accent, but his sounds were met with what sounded like a swift smack to the head, courtesy of a baseball bat, as if someone had hit a home run. Fog began to fill the parking lot and eerie phantom opera music slowly began to play, turning up the creepiness and chilly factor to the max.

Bodies started dropping like flies and to Sasha's advantage; Emma had finally gotten her nasty hands off of her. Emma didn't want any part of it obviously, taking her way under the fence and flooring it. Sasha wasn't done her yet, though. She may have been dazed and weak, but she was pissed off.

Taking a smaller dagger from her pocket, she launched the thing spearing through the fence and catching up to bubbly—no—bitchy diva slicing her right in the face.

Something the bitch to remember her by before she could finish the job.

Sasha winced at the fog as the crow meddled on the fence above her. The chaos had fallen and the vigilante had disappeared.

That didn't cure her raging pain, she thought as she crawled back over to her car and climbed in the driver's seat.

This was far from over.

Sasha slammed the gas pedal getting away from whatever trap she was lured into. It was easy to say that Sasha was being the blood boiling stage, but when some tried to ambush you==defense mode was full and in affect. She didn't need a vigilante for that.

Ignoring all the traffic rules the vengeful diva sped by vehicles left and right until she made it home—barely as the lingering concussion blurred her vision as if she needed this again. She rushed through the home she currently occupied catching a glimpse of Finn and Becky whose eyes melted from the TV screen in her direction.

"Uh, what the hell happened?" Becky said hoping over the couch and running her way.

"I was jumped by a bunch of fucking monkeys," Sasha threw her bags down before bolting into the bathroom, before either of them could ask any more questions; she snapped. "And where the fuck were you two? Weren't you supposed to be there today anyway? I was out there being killed and you two weren't even there to have my back!"

"Sasha, we had no idea," Finn brows furrowed as his eyes darted with concern, "who arranged this?"

"And that answer is supposed to make me feel any better, how?" Sasha opened the medicine cabinet and quickly treated the small cuts she obtained from the attack. "The person who _arranged_ this was the same person who attacked me in that burning arena." Sasha seethed her teeth as her anger piled into one, "and I'm going to make him pay once and for all tonight."

"Who was…it?" Becky asked folding her arms, Sasha raised a brow looking back at her friend.

"It was Hunter."

"And you've known this whole time?" Becky shook her head, "why would he even go after you in the first place?"

"We've already come to conclusion that questioning anything the Authority does is a waste of time," Finn added, "and you going on a rampage isn't going to make things better."

"But it's okay for him to send people after me? I'm just supposed to take every beating that he throws my way until I really can't breathe anymore?" Sasha's burning tears of frustration landed on her cheeks. "I warned him that if he didn't leave me alone that I would have to make hell….obviously he didn't believe me, so now I need to send a message."

"Which is what?" Becky eyes grew uneasy.

"I'll just take something…someone important away from him."

"Sasha…don't be impulsive," Finn tried to calm her down.

"I've had plenty of time to think about it when I was almost beaten to death," Sasha fired pushing past her friends, "now it would be nice if you two actually helped me this time instead going all ghost—at least the Vigilante was there."

"Arrow?" Becky said baffled at her friend. Sasha laughed a little shaking her head; she ran upstairs and threw on some clean clothes before the three of them gathered their plan.

* * *

"Am I good to go?" Sasha scanned her eyes over the dark field. Finn gave her a positive signal as Becky stood right behind her. "You don't have stay—"

"I'm not leaving without you two; just get in there, make a point and get back out here," Finn retorted. Sasha gave a nod before sliding under the fence.

Guard dogs would be a bitch right now, but luckily the COO had none of those around his Florida home.

As for the alarm system; that had already been disabled and now all they needed to do was get inside. Sasha glanced at the window gathering her thoughts as Becky shook her head.

"You sure you want to do this?"

"There's no way we're getting through the window unless we break it?" Sasha glared at the shaded glass before her. Going around to the back of the house would hopefully be a better chance. Becky flashed a wide smile catching Sasha's attention. "Looks like our boss isn't as smart as we thought," the Irish diva slightly pushed the back door open making her friend almost jump for joy. "I'm right behind you."

"Alright," Sasha scoped the place as she carefully tipped through the kitchen, the light was on, but no one was in sight. Sasha raised a suspicious brow. Who knew it would be so easy to break and enter?

"Something isn't right," Sasha whispered over her shoulder. The two of them followed the path of the kitchen just shy of the living room. They slowly stepped into the large room not even seeing any other signs of others.

"Upstairs maybe?" Becky whispered pointing towards the flight of spiral steps; Sasha shrugged heading up the stairs without hesitation. It was time to take care of business—the Boss of NXT continued up the stairs until the lights flickered out; her heel got caught on a step and gravity took her back. Becky caught her friend just in time.

"Fuck!" Either the house was haunted or somebody was playing games.

Sasha opted for the second one. Whoever it was knew they were in the house; so no hasty surprises this time. They were going to have to get hostile. Using their phones flash lights, they scurried up the flight of stair running into a lengthy hallway. The slight lighting from the outside barely casted a shadow from someone standing in front of them and faded into another room.

Sasha reached into her back pocket holding on her dagger tight. She entered the room hearing the door close behind her. "Becky…" she muttered in an exasperated tone.

"Hello, Sasha." The ragged voice of the COO made her jump out of her skin, "I figured you'd be here." A grimace formed on Sasha's face as the COO grinned from ear to ear his eyes moving directly beside her. Becky with her arms folded glanced over to Sasha and gave nonchalant response.

"Thank you, Becky," the COO gave a nod of assurance, Becky smiled back at the COO and left the room.

Sasha internally screamed.

"What…" she started in disbelief before finally piecing it together as the sense flowed back into her mind, "you planned this," she raged putting both hands on her head trying not to rip her skin a part. "You wanted me here?"

"You're predictable," Hunter said revealing a newly appointed sledgehammer, "really thinking that you could out smart me?" Sasha said nothing in response; so upset that now she truly knew any one could betray her.

Now that betrayal was about to get her exactly where Hunter wanted her to be.

Game over.

* * *

**Don't forget to check the other stories as we get closer to the end of phase 1! Next up, how will the Boss get out of danger now...or will she?**

**Pride by RontheRonin**

**Envy by MellyxBrooks**

**Revenge by XxPikasixjoyxX**

**Insanity by Cody'sfavoritexgirl**


	19. Game Over

**Chapter 19: Game Over**

**This is filler-ish guys! Getting closer to Mania and the end of phase 11!1 It'll be exciting!**

**Thanks for the support!**

* * *

**March 2****nd****, 2015 **

**10:18 pm**

If there was a way out of any situation; Sasha always had a plan to get a way—run for the hills if she needed to. As of late things had been changing for the NXT diva; people were becoming more sinister—and she wasn't the one to talk, but everyone she had given her trust in had betrayed her.

Maybe she should have tried remaining low key, maybe she should have complied with the fucked up recipe the Authority had formed over the past couple of years.

Yet, had she done that she would have missed her opportunity to finally be a champion—that wasn't an easy task. She didn't just want to be that puppet tangled in strings, and that's exactly what the WWE was right now.

Anyone who sided with the Authority had one of two reasons for being that fucking insane exhibit A: an underlying motive to survive in the company while being controlled by psychopathic tyrannies. Or exhibit B: A way to bide time while ruining the toxic empire the COO had planned.

Apparently everyone had gone with the first option and list of betrayers grew with each and every passing moment.

Right now she didn't have time to dwell about those who betrayed her because now; she was standing across from the man who very much well-orchestrated all of the wrath unleashed upon the company. "So, you caught me," Sasha calmed her nerves looking Hunter in his soulless eyes. "And let me guess now you're going to lecture me on how insubordinate I've been and what a horrible representative of a women's champion I've been. Am I in the ballpark or what?" she conveyed, a bit of sass dipped in that last comment.

The COO continued to stare her down with cold, stone eyes, as if he hadn't slept a wink in days. He removed himself from his homemade throne with no sound at all, reaching for a long metal case that was leaning against the wall. Sasha's eyes widened in slight fear as Hunter broke open the case to reveal something she hadn't even known existed in her lifetime. The Game kept the same, stone expression as he lifted the weapon high into the air for the Boss to see: a titanium sledgehammer.

"All you had to do was comply," Hunter said, taking a rag and shining up the end of the heavy metal sledgehammer. "Simple instructions Sasha. All you had to do was represent the WWE in a positive light, prove yourself a worthwhile champion, and most importantly, to stop fucking around with Roman Reigns." The Game set the sledgehammer on the side of his throne before reaching out for another metal case leaning against the other wall.

"I told you that I don't give a damn what you want me to do Hunter," Sasha boldly stated, holding her own ground. Adding more fuel to the fire unwisely, she added, "I think it's more so a case of you being jealous of Roman and wanting what you can't have," a light beamed in her eyes, that of newfound confidence. She only hoped it was real courage and not a sense of false bravado.

"Oh yeah?" Hunter said, breaking open the other metal case to reveal yet another titanium sledgehammer, quickly shining up that one as well. "Well, you are a fiery competitor, I'll give you that. But you've opposed the Authority and defied the Authority for the last time. It's your funeral now," Hunter said, and with the two titanium sledgehammers in his hand, he attached the bottoms of the two tools, connecting them to form one long, giant titanium sledgehammer.

"I don't believe you," she said without a flinch, "you wouldn't…"

"I'm giving you five-seconds to succumb to the Authority's orders," Hunter demanded beaming his cold glare at her. Still, keeping her ground, Sasha pushed from the wall, taking a step closer to him—bat shit crazy.

"I'm calling your bluff, you son of a bitch!" Sasha fired giving a right hook directly on COO's mountain of a nose. Hunter quickly fumed, his skin shading in red rage; and just like that he retaliated instinctually swinging the weapon. The whipping sound the heavy titanium echoed throughout the room before crashing into something that was to his dismay—not Sasha.

She had taken the seconds she had to get the hell out the way; dodging the hit just in time—speed was something she knew how to use to her advantage, the only question was; how long?

It did no justice not knowing where the hell she was or if anyone else was in the house— was the so called friend was lurking around to help with Hunter's dirty work?

She just didn't have enough fucking time to think.

"You can't hide from me!"

Propping behind a bookcase, Sasha slowed her slight panic as Hunter searched for her—he was scanning part of the room—tracking her every step blindly standing inches away from her.

Not to her luck at all did she need her phone to start blaring her song. Immediately the Game swung the hammer through the bookcase. Sasha darted out of the way—running down the dark hallway turning another corner, she climbed the staircase above her waiting until he was in view.

Just as he was in close proximity, Sasha sprung over the railing catching Hunter by his neck twisting him into a chokehold. It wasn't too long before Hunter seized by applying his strength. Without effort, he broke from the hold sending Sasha flying and crashing face first into the hardwood floor.

Staggering, Sasha used the railing for support and quickly connected a hook kick to Hunter's face.

Buying half a second, the hit she threw at him only made him angrier. He clenched the weapon tight and swung the heavy titanium right into her gut; her ribs combusting into pieces; the piercing agony dropped her to her knees.

"Get up," Hunter spat glowering down at Sasha, "champions keep fighting," he launched fist at her jaw. Her head whipped to the side, blurring her vision into a white spark.

Sasha yelped as the metallic taste dripped from her mouth-she struggled to dash away from the sledge hammer as it crashed into the floor, busting a whole right through it. Wincing in pain she held onto her flailing ribs that scratched beneath her skin. Even then the Boss wasn't about to go down without a fight. Sasha grabbed the nearest item to her—a floor lamp—and smashed it right into his big ass nose.

It was only a matter of time before Hunter prevailed the situation; grabbing of Sasha around the neck and applied a nerve pressure that deemed the pain overwhelming.

"And all this over a guy that comes from a family of failures," Hunter locked eyes with Sasha, "you really want to be one of those people who threw their lives away, just for Roman Reigns?"

"Fuck…you," Sasha stumbled over the easy retort losing her breath, Triple H shook his head in great disappointment.

"If you would have made the other choice, then I would have given you the world," Hunter said breathing inches away from her face.

"Roman…is…my world," Sasha struggled over her heaving through throat. The fiery boiled over in Hunter's remorseless gleam.

"Game over," he spewed the last phrase with passion before shoving Sasha right through the window, plummeting down into the darkness.

* * *

JoJo yawned tossing her blankets around to find some sort of comfort. There was no way she was getting any sleep with dead guy on her mind. Sure she may have been seeing double with Corey in that classroom a few weeks ago, but something in her mind just couldn't let that go. It just wasn't a good time for anything as of late and despite her feeling like a nervous wreck—she still managed to travel around Florida for all the NXT events. It was better than seeing a dead guy's face that was for sure. More so, she was worried if the blacking out would ever happen again or if it already has before. Then there was the issue with Sami in which she didn't even know what was going on with him…he disappears for a few days, returns with the most suspicious and sour attitude; that wasn't him.

He didn't even want to explain any of it to her. But that wasn't the issue—it was the fact that he just seemed like he didn't want to be around her anymore.

Shading her worse than anyone ever had. Guess he really did care huh?

Maybe deep down he knew she was the cold blooded killer that was just waiting for that moment to snap again, she couldn't help but think. God it was getting crowded in her mind again and she could go for another distraction.

JoJo threw the blankets down and jumped out of her bed trotting over to the dresser mirror.

She tried to image herself pointing the gun between CM Punk's eyes.

Her mind gave her a complete blank.

JoJo sighed turning from her reflection and leaving her room. She was surprised to see Adrian was still awake—eyes glued to the television screen. Swaying by him she tipped into the kitchen and grabbed a box of graham crackers. Adrian quickly turned his attention and shifted over on the couch.

"Thanks," JoJo said taking a seat next to him.

"Can't sleep?"

"No." JoJo tried to keep straight face, but the weariness definitely won the battle. Adrian held his arms acutely open. JoJo crawled into them instinctively feeling a certain calmness come over her.

* * *

The consistent buzzing noise blared inside of Sasha's ear, pulling her awake. She curse reaching her arm over; which hurt like a bitch, grabbed the alarm clock and tossed it to the ground.

And why the fuck did she feel like she had just survived a supercell tornado?

Yawning loud she covered the back of neck as pain riled up her spine.

Fuck.

So she really did fall out of a window and with the exception of cracking maybe three ribs and having a huge migraine—she survived the Authority once again.

But how was that even possible? How did she get back here? Sasha slid out the bed feeling her ribs shift. "Fuck!" The Boss of NXT reached for her phone laying on the dresser unhinged. The wooden door made a slight noise, reminding her that she was back with her recently new roommates—

In which one was a backstabbing bitch—

And the other was—

Finn made his way into the room carrying a glass of water, Sasha unintentionally plopped back down onto the bed wincing in pain. Sasha knew as much—he was definitely out waiting for the two to return last night before the chaos transpired, but had he been in on it all along?

"I brought you this," he brought the glass of water over to her and placed it on the desk. Sasha glared at the water then back to him.

"I think I'm going to need something a little stronger than that," Sasha took a small sip of the water after eyeing it closely, "so where's Becky?"

"Gone," Finn grimaced shaking his head, "all of her stuff is gone," he muttered, careful to join her. Sasha gritted her teeth.

"Maybe you should just leave it alone this time," Finn said noticing her expression.

"Maybe you should tell me if you knew about this plan all along?" Sasha questioned, "And no Finn, I'm not going to leave it alone—she gave me her word and then she threw me under the bus!"

"And how is fighting with her going to make it any better?" Finn remained calm through Sasha's hostile demeanor.

"I didn't say anything about fighting her, Finn," Sasha glowered, "answer the question."

"At first…I had accepted the offer to work with the Authority," Finn confessed. Sasha's infuriated face told the rest of the story. The feisty diva balled up her fist and struck the Irish astronaut right in his face; the punch ended up hurting her more though; because of the injuries sustained. Finn nodded, knowing he was in the wrong—even if he did save her. "I couldn't go through with it," he had a longing look for a moment that baffled Sasha.

"After I had almost fallen to my death?" Sasha gritted her teeth while holding her side, "and I'm fucking living with you?"

"I didn't want any of this to happen," Finn started.

"I really wish I could believe that," she saddened leaning back onto the bed, "I really thought I had good friends for once."

Instead of moping around and calling in sick for the day; Sasha decided that showing up to work after going through what she did would only make her stronger.

And it would piss Hunter off knowing that she survived his final game.

Thanks to her friend from outer space who almost betrayed her.

Sasha held her chin high as she walked or maybe even limped a little through the backstage area.

"Good luck," she heard one of newer dark haired and tattooed diva rookies say. Sasha gave a slight grin acknowledging the kind words. She didn't need luck though; she wasn't Becky Lynch and she wasn't worried about beating basic Charlotte tonight.

Shit was going to get done her way.

.


	20. Open Your Eyes

**Chapter 20: Open Your Eyes**

**EnJoy!**

* * *

Sash flipped her eyelids open; they seemed to pierce through the window shades just enough for a delicate warm beam. Spring always did feel a little and was full of surprises indeed. Of course since the Authority was running it's course at full swing, they never knew what to expect next—the tyranny threatened any and every one—and apparently you could be living with enemy without even knowing it.

Only this time she was a little more adamant about who she did trust.

And right now—that was probably no one around here anyway.

Soon enough, the NXT diva hoped for the best—even though it was hilarious to even have a positive mantra. At least being the champ was something to look forward to because the rest was just a never ending story. A few good things did flow through her mind as she stared at the ceiling. Basic Charlotte was out the way—easily Sasha won the rematch clause Char had cast in—with broken ribs and all(thanks to the middle rope for a little aide). Well she couldn't pass the opportunity to piss off the COO.

Who was a complete creep by the way.

No more than a week later the Boss still defended her title successfully against the cute little glittery pixie, Alexa Bliss. She did a good job though she had to admit.

But not good enough, haha.

Then there was her very close to closer…something…Roman.

Thinking of him randomly like this made her a little fluttery.

Okay.

She extended her arms above her body before rolling out of the blankets and grabbing her phone. It was clear she had grown way too fond of the Samoan Thor—and it was becoming harder to fight those feelings.

Nor did she really want to deny them anymore.

Adjusting the camera on her phone, Sasha took as Snap Chat of her face bright eyed, bushy tailed, and smiling. _#Goodmorning_ she captioned before hitting the send button and how silly did she feel sending it Roman. To her surprised; he quickly replied with an awkward picture of him wearing sunglasses and Dean photo bombing with his face in a box of Krispy Krème. _#You're hotter than donut grease_. A burst of laughter let out from Sasha as she sent him a text.

_You're CHEESY AF!_

_-LegitBoss_

Sasha giggled all the way into the kitchen engrossed into the morning back and forth her and Roman were having she almost didn't notice Finn waving at her trying to get her attention.

Sasha glared up at him; grimaced, immediately putting her attention back to her phone.

Too bad she was on her way to San Jose for Axess week—or else she would have been on her way to pack all of things and get as far away from the traitor as—.

"You can't ignore me forever," Finn spewed through his accent, "how many times do I have to say that I'm sorry?"

Sasha rolled her eyes. So, she got it—Finn changed his mind and had her back after the whole confrontation with Hunter, but did that mean she had to forgive him right away?

In the words of Dean Ambrose:

NOPE.

He had a lot of proving himself to go before she would ever trust him again.

And that may seem harsh, but at least she's not having Roman Superman Punch the symbiote right out of him.

Lucky ducky.

Sasha shrugged sighing as Finn waiting for a respond. "Just like you thought you could lie to me forever, right?"

"I told you the truth."

"You told me only half of what was going on," Sasha fired, "obviously you wouldn't have agreed to it unless you had some ulterior motive."

The silence filled the room along with Sasha's attitude.

"I did what every other person would have done," Finn explained himself, Sasha rolling her eyes in displeased fashion.

"And what is that?" she asked. "Did the Authority blackball you or something? You know what, never mind. Don't answer that Finn because we all know Hunter loves you and "the demon" you become down in Florida," the Boss sassed. Finn groaned as he rubbed the bottom of his chin. Was there any way to get this through to this woman?

"Look Sasha, my mind wasn't in the right place when I was agreeing to help Triple H—" Finn started but Sasha cut in. "You're damn right it wasn't you idiot. Probably had your stupid "demon" doing the thinking for you." The former Bullet Club member shook his head.

"Yeah yeah, are you gonna keep insulting me or are you going to let me finish?" When he saw that Sasha's facial expressions returned to a glare, he continued once more. "Like I said—"

"No, it's like _**I**_ said. I don't care if you agreed to it or not; what you did or didn't do doesn't change the fact that you agreed to help Hunter hurt me. _Me._ Someone you're supposed to care about. I put my trust into you and Becky and the both of you betrayed me, and that's what hurts the most Finn," Sasha scolded, her tone turning into that of an upset and disappointed friend.

The international superstar struggled to swallow a dry lump in his throat as Sasha pierced through his soul with cold eye daggers. Everything she was absolutely the truth, and whether sarcasm was dripping off her words or not, he knew he deserved every single insult that the Boss was hurling at him.

"For all I know, you two were probably fucking each other behind my back while planning to do this to me all along to begin with," Sasha spat, slamming open the refrigerator door right into Finn's gut, causing him to fall back a little. "I'm not sorry for that, nor am I sorry for any of your food that I'm taking from your fridge. Because once we get back from WrestleMania week, I am getting the hell out of this apartment, and you can find some other friends to fuck around with and toy with their emotions, you fucking demon." With venom in her veins, Sasha delivered a poisonous slap to the face of Finn, before grabbing her travel bags and storming out the apartment in a hurry.

Finn didn't say a word; instead, he rested his head upon the kitchen wall, kicking himself hard.

If only he had told her what really went through his head that night. Or how he _really _felt.

* * *

Another lazy day wasted away for the NXT Champion Kevin Owens as he laid on the couch, recovering from his recent knee surgery as he stared at the television screen, constantly flipping through the channels and trying to find something to watch. Good God did American television suck and failed in comparison to the hilarity that ensued on television back in his home country of Canada.

It sucked not being able to go work out and participate in his usual routine that he did, but the issues in his knee were building up and bugging him to the point where the surgery was absolutely necessary. The champ scoffed at the idea of surgery. He didn't even need the damn crutches anyway so what the fuck was the point of him not working out? Hell, Hunter was still making him fly out to California for WrestleMania week as it was anyway.

"Fuck this stupid shit. I'm going out for some damn air. Watch the house for me while I'm gone Bozo," Kevin barked at his Labrador retriever Bozo, but Bozo wasn't exactly listening. The retriever was already at the door, showing his teeth and emitting a low growl from his mouth as he barked at the door, ready to launch into action as soon as his master opened it.

The rustling of bushes and branches outside caused Kevin to arch his eyebrow in slight interest. Who really was dumb enough to approach the big brawler on his very **own** doorstep?

Not really giving a damn either way, he opened the door and to his slight surprise, a fiery redhead he instantly recognized as the one and only Becky Lynch stood before him, completely covered in a thick ass hoodie, as if she were hiding from the police or something.

"What the fuck are you doing wearing that thing? It's like 90 degrees out there stupid," Kevin insulted Becky without even properly greeting her. Kevin's icy blue eyes were met by Becky's fiery red eyes, although they weren't exactly glowing with fire right now at the moment.

"Is that really how you greet a guest, lass? Thought you had better people skills than that, but look that doesn't matter right now. I need to lay low right now considering I'm on Sasha's most wanted list at the moment," the Delty Diva quickly explained, but only got a small smirk from Kevin in response.

"Well there's a sewer entrance right by the side of my driveway. You should go lay low in there," the NXT champion solemnly suggested. Becky's eyes flashed red immediately, almost tempted to knock the Canadian upside his head when she noticed his heavily padded right knee.

"That's a thickly padded knee you got there," Becky suggested, smirking at Kevin's barking dog Bozo. "It'd be a shame if somebody were to…re-injure it," she suggested. "Now let me in, please Kevin. I'm not gonna use manners again," the Irish diva said in a hurried manner. In response, Kevin only smirked yet again, tapping his foot fervently.

Seeing that manners were getting her nowhere, Becky scowled and barged her way into the apartment past Kevin, throwing her bags onto his stairs as she went straight for the fridge, finding the nearest cold beer to drink. "Now was that so hard?" Kevin asked, closing the door behind him, laughing a bit at Becky's misfortune.

"Fuck you," Becky scoffed at the arrogance of her host, popping open her beer and taking several swigs at a time before grabbing another one and flopping onto the couch next to the NXT champion. Looking at her surroundings, Becky nodded her approval. "Nice digs ye got here Kev," she quipped, but Kevin used a pillow to hit the redhead upside her head. "No one gets to be sarcastic with me. Consider that your warning," Owens warned, pausing for a bit and then laughing at his guest in good fun.

Once Becky realized Kevin was only screwing with her, she let out a heckling Irish laugh before the two kicked back in the chair, temporarily making the Delty Diva forget about her fears of Sasha tracking and hunting her down.

**2 Hours Later**

"So Finn and I had literally already had sex like three times, and we were about to go through with Triple H's plan to take out Sasha when wimpy boy Finn starts to have fucking doubts," Becky laughed and slurred through her now tenth bottle of beer as Kevin listened on. He had muted the TV, not wanting to hear the sounds of Jeopardy feel his eardrums. As Bozo laid by his side asleep, Kevin tuned in more to Becky's story. The fact that she and Finn had had sex multiple times didn't interest him at all, because well, watching potatoes peel potatoes wasn't exactly a vivid image for him to imagine.

What did catch his interest was Becky's ploy to eliminate Sasha from the picture for some odd reason. She was deadset on becoming NXT Women's champion, and just like when he had ruined Sami's big night when he had won the NXT title after a yearlong journey, Kevin destroyed their friendship with one devastating Powerbomb on the ring apron, leaving his former friend in a bloody heap and broken mess. So with everything Becky was telling him, Kevin knew the exact feeling.

* * *

**California**

**Bay Area at Axess Week**

Sasha spent most of her day running through San Jose alongside the NXT and main roster as the various superstars and divas prepared for the hectic WrestleMania weekend. The mind was surely going to be test and right now, the Boss of NXT was taking things as they came at her.

"Finally, back where it all began!" Sasha said aloud thinking of the piece of her that always belonged in the Golden State. Majority of her father's side of the family resided in the hills and all over—and of course her cousin; the man who could run them all out of the way if he wanted to, Snoop Dogg. Sasha laughed it was good to see family no matter which side of tracks she was on. Boston was home, but Cali had her roots.

The crowd was nice for once as she made her way down the ramp to face Alexa Bliss. The title was on the line, but as per usual; Sasha didn't have a worry in the world—Alexa could fight her a million times over until her little kettle of glitter became empty.

In the end; the cute little blonde had to be reminded that Sasha was the mayor of Edge City and Lexi would be formally dragged. She proved her point once the high flying diva went for the Sparkle Splash, but was snatched up into a Bank Statement—Sasha loved making them tap. After the match and few words with fans; Sasha headed through the backstage area, weary to keep her eye out for Becky or moreso, the Delty Diva should have been the one to worry because the moment Sasha saw the red head; war would be an understatement.

"Hey, Sasha!" the cheery eyed Bayley wrapped her friendly arms around the Champion. Sasha made herself a little nice and patted Bayley on the back—she was OK, she guessed. "Before we head over to the panel, Sara said to stop by her office."

"Alright, thanks." Sasha slightly raised a brow. Usually something was wrong if Sara wanted to speak to someone as of late, but Sasha hadn't done anything bad. At least not lately anyway. The curious eyes of the NXT diva headed into the small office and by the look on the face of the trainer—Sasha immediately knew something wasn't right.

"Sit down, please," Sara said politely, but with a blunt demeanor. Sasha followed the orders with an uncanny expression.

"What is it?" Sasha inquired instinctively. For some reason she didn't feel right about the answer she was about to be fed. The trainer shuffled through a file folder pulling out a paper with Sasha's legal name.

"These are the results to your drug test," Sara darted a stern, but sympathetic look her way. Sasha quickly shook her head.

"I'm not taking any drugs, Del Ray," Sasha fired smacking her lips, "why did you call me in here?"

"You passed your drug test, Sasha," Sara quickly refuted the assumption, "but you should be concerned."

"If I passed then…why should I be concerned?"

"You're pregnant."

It took a moment for Sasha actually processed the words the flowed from the brunette's mouth.

"It's a little too early for April Fool's," Sasha fell into a hysterical laughter.

"I'm one-hundred percent serious, you're—,"

"No!" Sasha fired standing up and knocking her chair over. "Whatever the fuck that test is, is wrong. Don't play me, I know my fucking body." Sasha snatched the piece of paper and tore it in half before storming out the room.

For that moment time really did stand still.

* * *

**Pride by RontheRonin**

**Envy by MellyxBrooks**

**Revenge by XxPikasixjoyxX**


	21. Death Is The Road To Awe

**Chapter 21: Death is the Road to Awe**

**I just want to thank all of you sooo much for all of the support! This is the final chapter for Temptation, but this is not the end. Please all of my lovely readers if you would read the latest chapter 36 of RonTheRonin's Pride before reading this one or it won't make any sense!**

_Scouting through the boonies of the Bay area wasn't exactly on his bucket list, but it worked for the time being. He had to come up with something. You had aspiring actresses trying to chase the charter bus to reach LA for one of thousands of casting calls; those born with silver spoons found it easy to get to their destination of fame, but others who weren't so lucky were just waiting to get lucky enough to be found. _

_Which made it that much easier to find that sheltered naïve girl that would find delight in the slightest look her way._

_Reaching into his pocket, he pulled out a pair of shades and placed them over his face. His vision was good enough to look past the bleach blond bimbos grinning with their boobs hanging to the ground right to someone sitting on a bench; she was a brunette with fair skin and innocent brown eyes._

_She was exactly who he needed. _

_Shuffling by the pornographic legs; he approached the young girl who had her face buried into a book. When she noticed the large figure standing in front of her; she jumped back a little startled by the attention._

_Jackpot. _

"_I didn't mean to startle you," he tipped forward in a soft tone, "but I couldn't help but notice."_

"_Notice?" the girl nervously said as the eyes of the bleached out and orange girls gave jealous looks her way. "I'm sorry…did you need me to leave..." the girl frantically grabbed her book bag and started to leave._

"_Not at all," he replied with polite gesture, "I was actually wanting to speak to you about something,"_

"_Me?" the brunette said in awe, it was apparent that she had be overlooked for so long. _

"_Yes, you, darling," he scooped her delicate hand into his giving it a gentle shake, "I'm a casting agent from Europe and I couldn't help, but notice your…unique look," he said with poise. _

_Blushing the brunette covered her face as the excitement dwelled on to her. In the meantime the man decided to reach into his pocket and reveal a very convincing business card. The girl lit up even more when seeing the reliable proof. _

"_I can't believe this…" she held her chest as all of her dreams were being panned out in front of her. The man gave a warm smile._

"_Would you like to have some tea with me?" he asked pointing towards a café nearby, "we could go into detail if you'd like?"_

_Envy seeped from the eyes of the bimbo's all around, but the brunette was in so much awe, just for the brief moment her insecurities has disappeared. She nodded with great confidence. Throwing her book bag over her shoulder; she followed the man into the café. _

"_I'll have a cup of coffee, black please," he told the waiter, the brunette ordered a chai latte. Now would have been the perfect time to get some important information. _

"_Your star quality looks have to come with a name," the man said pulling his sun glasses off, the girl face palmed flushing red again. _

"_I apologize—it's Genevieve,"_

"_You must be French, Genevieve," he pronounced the name almost too perfect, "you can call me David."_

"_Yes I am," she giggled nodding her head, "do you need a portfolio?" She asked reaching into her bag and pulling out a binder. "I have reel too, anything you need-"_

_Taking the binder; David flipped through the images as if he knew what the hell to look for—that didn't matter it just had to look as if did. Giving a nod of approval; he took the USB that contain her work on video and put it into his pocket. "I'll take a look at this soon, but really my auditions are a little more on the spot he said as the two finished their hot drinks. Genevieve hesitated before giving an answer._

"_Oh, alright," she forced out as her nerves had gotten to her. _

"_There will be three other girls auditioning—you don't have worry about being alone," David mentioned with sincerity._

_There was her hopeful smiled again. "Okay, I'm ready." David paid for the drinks before the two excite the café. The sun was still up and making its way—today was the grand finale of course. _

**WrestleMania Levi's Stadium, **

**10:45pm**

A reality that had to be dealt with every day was that things could never go as planned. It just truly never happened that way-especially in the WWE, there was always someone waiting around the corner to for the bitter second you finally lost your balance.

Just so they could take your place.

Humans were weak like that; they always, no matter how much "faith" or "hope they carried, they always sunk right into the wave of feelings.

Demons however, didn't have that problem. The switch was easy; if something was standing in your way—there was only one way to solve the issue.

And that was kill first ask questions later.

No doubt, it was a lot to think about considering the circumstances that revolved around the situation. He knew that either way he would get the job done.

After all it was a part of the plan all along.

Finn squeezed his fist together itching for the hunt he had been appointed to; after having his hands dirty for so long, it was difficult to get them clean again—and he had no intention to go that route anytime soon.

The devil he made a deal with had a better bargain than any other—so maybe it was worth it.

As a matter of fact; it was worth it because he could have done things differently because he could have been selfish about it and maybe he still was.

Letting things play out day by day—that's all he could do after tonight, but he knew what he was about to do was going to change the game forever.

_You have fifteen minutes. _The text on Finn's phone flashed like an amber alert; Finn raised out of his mind warp and gazed into the direction of his target. Blinking a few times he almost let himself wonder what the fuck he was really doing.

The NXT divas champion was on the other side of the locker room door. The sounds of the crowd up roaring from the main stage could be heard. They didn't seem too happy about the favorite competitor of the night. So much irony. But time was against him at the very moment; Finn place his hand against the cold door giving it a slight push as his next victim was revealed. Sasha had her eyes on the television screen as the main event of WrestleMania was in full speed. She was wearing a leather jacket over her cropped top

_Get this done in 25 minutes. _The text blinked onto his phone reminding him once again what needed to be done.

Approaching her silently he stopped behind her, just inches way staring at her long hair, her olive skin and just her….

It would take him awhile before he could snap out of it, but when he finally did Sasha was looking at him square in his blue eyes.

"What the hell do you want?" The fiery diva spat, "What part of leave me alone don't you understand?"

Finn said nothing as his ice cold eyes dilated into an empty glare. Sasha decided that maybe slapping him upside the head would get his attention, but this time she missed or more like Finn caught her swinging hand and pulled her close to him.

"I need you to listen to me," he demanded breathing down on her

"Fuck no!" Sasha tried to free herself from his grip, but that struggle became completely irrelevant as Finn decided it was probably going to be a miracle before she was ever going to trust him again.

Which was why he had a backup plan just in case.

Reaching into his back pocket he pulled out a sizable cloth. Sasha gave a baffled look while yelling various curse words at Balor. He almost wanted to laugh; guess that would with the maniacal part.

Forcing the cloth over Sasha's mouth was a hard task especially when her hits were meaningful. But finally she relaxed as the chemical had finally gotten to her slipping her off her feet; Finn caught her just in time.

Checking to see if the premises were clear; Finn made his way down the hall while he held the NXT diva in his arms knowing that when she woke up; she was probably going to try maul his eyes out.

It was worth protecting her.

Outside the arena the SUV was ready to go. Finn gently placed Sasha into the back seat signaling at his good friend Hideo who ran to the back trunk and pulled out a –occupied body bag.

"Get in there and get out," Finn shook his head as the guilt he denied so much made its way back into his mind.

_Adjusting the lighting on the mint "set" David wandered as his mind zoomed a million miles a minute. The large room rented for the task was convincing for even the most observant detective. The slight knock on the door perched his ears; he opened it to see his favorite Genevieve standing in the doorway. He motioned towards the set pointing at the seat he had out for her. _

"_Take a seat, would you like a drink?"_

"_Sure…" she nervously ran her fingers through her hair. She had on a fitted strapless dress that was short enough; showing off her fit figure—definitely kept in shape and a lot more appealing than the Barbie chicks from earlier._

"_You like sour apple?" David said taking out a large bottle of vodka and a glass. He poured the drink into the glass._

"_I do…I haven't really had much to drink before though," she followed him over to the set and sat down in the chair. _

"_It's a little strong, but it'll help calm your nerves," David handed her the drink. Running into the bed room; he returned with a clipboard and a few of the photos she had given him from earlier._

"_Let's get started," he said sitting across from her as the light hit her skin. "Tell me about yourself."_

_The brunette kicked back the strong drink letting out a heavy cough as the liquid burned the back of her throat. "I'm actually from New Orleans—moved here a few years ago after my parents passed…I've been trying to make them proud ever since."_

_David looked the floor after hearing the sad words. "That's very tragic…I'm sorry to hear that."_

"_I think I've been holding up okay," she fought the tears from the past, "I vowed to them that I would never give up on my goals—that's all they wanted—was to see me succeed."_

"_You're one step closer to that now," David gave her sympathetic eyes, he poured another shot for her. _

"_There's not much to know about me personally," Genevieve shrugged throwing back the second shot a little easier, "I have a twin sister…Elise..she's not exactly down the right path right now."_

"_Not everyone knows their path right away," David reached out to grab the girls hand and helping her to feet. _

"_Without the heels, how tall are you?" he asked as she kicked the black pumps off of her soles_

"_Around 5'5," she said with disappointment, "a little short I guess,"_

"_Not at all," David flashed a smile before studying her closely, he stopped, looking at her long dark hair._

"_How would you feel about changing your hair color?"_

"_I've never tried anything like that before," she said pulling at her locks, "but I'm open to it."_

"_A slight Burgundy," David jotted down on the clipboard, Gene raised a brow. _

"_You think that'll suit me?" _

"_Specifically for the part, I do," he gently placed his hands onto the back of her head and unraveled the hair band that held her hair into a ponytail. The brown hair fell past her shoulders and David found his blue eyes gleaming over her._

_God, she looked just like her._

_Genevieve fell into herself again. Looking down to the floor and touching her face. "I'm sorry I'm not use to the attention."_

"_You'll have to overcome that fear in this industry, you know."_

"_I'm sorry, it's just when I'm acting, it's easier…I can be someone else and all of my insecurities go away."  
_

"_Can you turn that element of you on right now?"_

_Genevieve nodded. "Who do you want me to be?"_

_David shrugged icing his eyes over the girl as she offered to start the audition. He motioned towards the door as another female around the same height with golden blonde hair walked up to them. "Hi, my name's Leah," she said giving a friendly smile, "I'm just here to do makeup and hair," her accent was familiar. New York maybe?_

"_Hi."_

"_Come on hun! I'm gonna make you fabulous!" Leah jeered taking the brunette to the "hair chair" let's get the burgundy poppin doll!"_

The black SUV pulled into the airport empty as ever for the time being. No one was rushing to get to any flight for the last WrestleMania moments. Last thing Finn had heard was Roman Reigns was taking a vicious beating from the Beast. A bold, bold decision.

And to mention not to Roman's knowledge—Sasha was about to pull a disappearing act—only no one would actually know that she was still alive.

Except for Finn and the person he was taking orders from.

That decision was very bold, but he wanted to have her protected and now her unborn child too. The Authority had underlying plans that were unveiled in secrecy; which was when a higher power contacted Finn; who didn't hesitate to hop on board with the arch.

Sasha would hate him for it; just like she hated him for betraying her, but that animosity was very much worth it.

"Roman…" Sasha turned her head regaining a little consciousness before falling back into a deep sleep.

Of course to save a life; other things and people had to be sacrificed and Finn could live without remorse if it meant that she was going to be safe.

"_It's done!" Leah hollered over her shoulder, "She's all burgundy and brown now—I think she'll nail it," Leah winked at David before taking her check and leaving. "Gimmie a call if ya need a touch up." David waved to the hairstylist and made his way over to Genevieve who stared in the mirror feeling her hair from root to end, and even smiling._

"_It looks stunning on you," he folded his arms biting his lower lip. Now that she looked like 'her' even more—the more intensity raise in his gut. "Stand up, sweetheart," he took a few steps back as the girl rose out of the seat. _

"_I think I really like it," she stood up straight, "it makes me feel…"_

"_Bold, brash, confident?"_

"_Yeah…" she nodded. David handed over a piece of paper. _

"_I want you to look over these quotes, and then I want you improvise for me."_

"_Alright," she said with confidence. Skimming over the paper she raised a brow as she analyzed the character analysis. "This is different…then what I'm used to."_

"_Challenges will make you better," David winked just before leading Gene over to the set, "give me one-hundred and ten percent." Genevieve took another shot of the vodka which had now felt like butter going down her throat._

_Standing in the spotlight she took a deep breath._

_David watched her every movement and facial expressions—he was no real casting agent, but he could agree that she was a natural; which made him even more uneasy because she was even sounding exactly like her._

"_Continue," he cleared his throat almost falling out of seat from his hard staring. _

_That apparently wasn't the only thing that was hard. _

"_I'm the Boss of NXT….the baddest" she said breaking character and shaking her head, "the ah…vodka has me a little wobbly."_

_Of course she was a lightweight. That was fine; he could change the scenario, he was getting antsy staying in the one place anyway. _

"_We're not done with audition now are we?" she asked as David made his way into the kitchen. _

"_Not at all," David started up a brew of coffee, "I actually wanted to try something different."_

_The words spewed from his tongue like a second nature; he didn't even know what the 'different' was. _

_But he was more than willing to test the waters._

_Pulling the black t shirt over his head; he dropped to the kitchen floor and proceeded to sit on one of the stools. Genevieve's eyes widened at the audacity of David. Of course that could have been the character she was trying to play in the moment, but her deep brown eyes glued to his grated abs and upper physique._

"_Holy, fucking, shit,' the coffee mug she had just started on dropped to the tiled floor splattering everywhere._

"_You've spent all your time telling me why you're the baddest; I think it's time you show me."_

"_I don't…know if I know exactly what that means."_

"_Stay in character." David demanded, "think about what Sasha would do and channel that into yourself…lose yourself and become her."_

_Channeling those thoughts; Genevieve swung her hand around connecting to David's jaw. He smiled letting out an impressed laugh as the match in her eyes finally began to burn. _

_Now she was Sasha._

_And fuck, he wanted her._

_Wasting no time, David grabbed the young woman around her waist tugging beneath her dress as his lips crashed onto her. Struggling for dominance; he guessed that she either really knew how to stay in character no matter what David's intentions were or she was just a starved as him. The hunger he had for Banks had been floating around for the longest—it wasn't as if he was getting her anytime soon._

_So the temporary fix would be just enough until the right time happened for the two for real._

_David propped Geneviève onto the kitchen counter pulling her dress over her head—he could have ripped it, but he was little more thoughtful about that part. Anyway. Sliding the dark panties from her legs he parted them crawling up her thighs until his fingers met her wet core springing into her; she let out moans loud enough to shatter the glass as he pumped his fingers inside of her. _

_He was shocked that she even let it get this far; though he wasn't really complaining at the moment. _

"_Roman!" Genevieve moaned the name as traces of her French accent seethed in. David immediately stopped what he was doing glared his dark eyes at the young woman._

"_What the fuck did you just say?" he gritted yanking her up to his face. _

"_I was just…in the script his name was Roman and you said to stay in character."_

"_Change that name from Roman to Finn," David demanded._

_Nodding immediately the woman reached for the zipper on David's pants pulling out his throbbing member._

"_Keep up with me, Finn," she gave a cocky grin while stroking him, he laughed loving the validly of this girl. She sure she hadn't met Sasha before?_

"_Fuck!" David roared spreading Genevieve's legs even more and shoving himself into her. It was times like this where the fine line between reality and fantasy could be merged into one and as they both fell into a raging orgasm; reality found its way back into the studio. _

_Don't break the plan._

_Collapsing on top the woman, David took a moment to catch his breath and his mind._

"_That was amazing," David said caressing her hair, "you stepped outside your comfort zone with a complete stranger."_

"_I just had this raging passion all of a sudden," she took a deep breath, "I don't want to seem like one of those girls…"_

"_You're not," David gave a half smile, "we got caught in the moment."_

_Genevieve nodded returning the smile. "Are you really going to sign me?" Her hopeful eyes gleamed into his._

_David caressed her hair more bringing her close to his face trailing his fingers down her neck. "Why wouldn't I?" David gazed into her eyes, "there's always room for one more in my soul." _

"_That's a poetic way of—"Genevieve was interrupted; not by words, but by the sudden sound of her own neck snapping in half. David's hands gripped about her neck with force as he felt her entire body shut down._

_Someone had to pay the price in order to save her._

"Is everything okay sir?" the flight attendant waved in front of Finn's face as he was lost in his own thoughts.

"Yes, ma'am, I'm sorry," Finn replied smiling to the lady. The flight attendant looked beside Finn to see Sasha knocked out cold and snoring.

"Your wife alright?" she pointed to the sleeping diva who wore the shiny diamond ring on her finger.

Finn did a longing gaze at Sasha as she shifted to the side. "She's just fine, just getting used to being pregnant."

The flight attendant flashed a bright smile from the news. To add to it as well in about 45 minutes their flight would land and the definition of a new beginning would be in full swing.

* * *

**Thank you all so much for reading. This has been such a fun story to write and I've e enjoyed all of your reviews/follows/favs. **

**There will be a sequel! This ends Phase I**

**Phase II will be: Temptation: Escape Me**

**Thank you;**

**RonTheRonin**

**XxPikaSixJoyxX**

**MellyXBrooks**

**Cody'sxFavoritexGirl**

**Leyton4life69**

**WhiteAsukalover**

**xCenasMilax**

**dallas1990**

**dashinginconverse**

**BigTime1224**

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**darksymphony777**

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**msvreads**

**shaniquacynthia**

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**And thanks to anyone else I missed.**

**Please feel free to follow me on tumblr! romanreignsgalore**


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